UL: Steve Lukos: State abuses power when it chaperones grown-ups

[KBCraig]

Excellent!

Anyone know Steve Lukos?

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=6ea1d1c0-f0ba-4002-82a6-939d94194317

Steve Lukos: State abuses power when it chaperones grown-ups

We keep fighting the same battles over and over, but it really boils down to this: When will government stop chaperoning rational adults?

Pick a topic: gambling, marijuana, censorship, alcohol, guns, prostitution -- anything involving sane, consenting adults. Why should these activities be prohibited? The government has taken a venue in which it has no business, namely morality.

Furthermore, to support its position, the government has been caught prevaricating and embellishing on innumerable occasions. Is it any wonder that politics and lying are perceived as synonymous?

Here's one example of political fudging: Recently, Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, an opponent of expanded gambling, compared New Hampshire's crime rate to Nevada's, a state founded and developed by miners, misfits and Mafiosi, as well as sporting altogether different demographics. Then he concluded spuriously that this discrepancy between our states is attributable to one factor alone -- gambling. This is not a fair comparison, but a non sequitur and, dare I say, propaganda.

Other critics expound on the downturn in gambling revenues across the board; however, unless we envision our future as one of perpetual recession, this is an anomaly and not a fitting standard of comparison either.

One has to wonder what's the real agenda behind the opposition to expanded gambling. If it's moral indignation, then it belongs in the home and church, not in the Legislature. If it's outside lobbying and bribery, it belongs in prison, period.

As a citizen of this state and this land of the free, I resent the moral undertone (and undertow) of all such prohibitions. I don't want, nor do I need, a nanny government to protect me from myself.

All I need is responsibility for my own actions, and I have stellar support from Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill on this position. I am really sick and tired of right-wing, religious zealots who attempt to reform human nature to their own image through legislation. Even God doesn't do that.

All that government can and ought to do is protect us against demonstrable harm, obstruction to liberties and illegal seizure or destruction of property. That's work enough without adding divine sanctification to the mix.

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. Then, for heaven's sake, butt out of our personal affairs.

Steve Lukos of Atkinson is a gardener and an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher.