Collard greens head to Haley's desk

Every once in a while, watching the legislature at work can actually prompt a smile. Uttered just minutes ago by Speaker of S.C. House Bobby Harrell:

"By a vote of 86 to 14, the House votes to make collard greens the state vegetable."

You might be interested to know it only took about 20 minutes of debate in the House. Some excerpts:

Rep. Marion Frye of Lexington County on collard greens:
"This provides jobs ... It also provides quite a bit of income to the people of South Carolina."

"...South Carolina produces 21-plus percent of the collards produced in the United States. It had in 2006, 2,377 acres in the state of South Carolina is ranked, South Carolina is ranked 2 in the nation. This is a very important thing for the people of South Carolina and not only for them but for the state of South Carolina. There are 10 other states that have state vegetables. This is our first state vegetable. Believe it or not, we have two state drinks. We have a state insect. We have a state almost everything, but this would be our first state vegetable. If you choose to have a state vegetable, I believe this is a good choice to have for a state vegetable."

The 3rd grade student who led the effort to have collard greens made the official vegetable was then introduced and praised for her civic spirit.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Ryan of Georgetown was tweeting: "I applaud the young lady who proposed the "collard bill" for trying to get involved in the political process, but this is absurd!"
And Rep. Thad Viers of Myrtle Beach was retweeting a thought from Rep. Gary Simrill of York County: "Taxpayers pay $50,000 per day for the SC House to operate. They just spent $5000 of that to discuss Collards. #absurd."

Finally, Rep. Steve Parker of Spartanburg County wrapped things up: 
"We need to pass this quick to protect our students in this state because I've heard if we're not careful I've heard people will come into our state and tell us we need to eat their collard greens and tell us they're better than ours. ... Our collard greens are great. We need to to pass this immediately."

For those keeping score, our local delegation was somewhat split on the issue:
Liston Barfield and George Hearn voted yes, to make collards the official vegetable, while Alan Clemmons, Kevin Ryan and Thad Viers voted no.

 

 

Rep. Marion Frye of Lexington County on collard greens:
"This provides jobs ... It also provides quite a bit of income to the people of South Carolina."

"...South Carolina produces 21-plus percent of the collards produced in the United States. It had in 2006, 2,377 acres in the state of South Carolina is ranked, South Carolina is ranked 2 in the nation. This is a very important thing for the people of South Carolina and not only for them but for the state of South Carolina. There are 10 other states that have state vegetables. This is our first state vegetable. Believe it or not, we have two state drinks. We have a state insect. We have a state almost everything, but this would be our first state vegetable. If you choose to have a state vegetable, I believe this is a good choice to have for a state vegetable."

The 3rd grade student who led the effort to have collard greens made the official vegetable was then introduced and praised for her civic spirit.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Ryan of Georgetown was tweeting: "I applaud the young lady who proposed the "collard bill" for trying to get involved in the political process, but this is absurd!"
And Rep. Thad Viers of Myrtle Beach was retweeting a thought from Rep. Gary Simrill of York County: "Taxpayers pay $50,000 per day for the SC House to operate. They just spent $5000 of that to discuss Collards. #absurd."

Finally, Rep. Steve Parker of Spartanburg County wrapped things up: 
"We need to pass this quick to protect our students in this state because I've heard if we're not careful I've heard people will come into our state and tell us we need to eat their collard greens and tell us they're better than ours. ... Our collard greens are great. We need to to pass this immediately."

For those keeping score, our local delegation was somewhat split on the issue:
Liston Barfield and George Hearn voted yes, to make collards the official vegetable, while Alan Clemmons, Kevin Ryan and Thad Viers voted no.