Rep. Warren Groen: ‘Don’t frack my mother’
One never quite knows what to expect when Rep. Warren Groen (R-Rochester) delivers a speech on the House floor.
During the 2012 marriage equality debate, the Concord Monitor reported Groen warned lawmakers that “same-sex marriage is part of a ‘slippery slope’ that would lead to polygamy for bisexual people and Muslims seeking to ‘take over the world.’ “ Last year, Associate Press quoted Groen referring to abortion providers as “organizations that butcher babies.”
Wednesday, Groen delivered a speech to his House colleagues in opposition to House Bill 609, legislation that would have prohibited hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil production. Groen concluded his speech by reciting a portion of Sean Lennon’s anti-fracking protest song, “Don’t Frack my Mother:”
You can’t tell a man where to stick his drill
The cow don’t know what’s good for her udders
So I’m going to frack your mother
Don’t frack my mother
Cause I ain’t got no other
Don’t frack my mother
You can do anything that you wanna do
But don’t frack my mother
Now we can’t afford for this world to get hotter
And we can’t afford polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in our water
Teratogens, carcinogens enough to make you shudder
So please don’t frack my mother
The song — a take-off on Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” — was written by Lennon and performed by Yoko Ono and 150 fellow artists to publicize the harm resulting from hydraulic fracturing.
So why did Groen, who was speaking against a fracking ban, recite Lennon’s anti-fracking anthem? “I guess my question is, is it a good idea for us to take energy advice from the woman who broke up the Beatles?” Groen said.
HB 609 went down to defeat in a 81-254 roll call vote.