Republicans and Our Private Lives

This week the Georgia State Senate passed a bill requiring public schools to weigh students, report the weight to their parents and maintain cumulative weight records. It's interesting that the first of this type of bills was signed into law by a certain Arkansas Governor named Huckabee.

For years I have heard Republicans criticize Democrats for meddling too much in people's lives and creating big government. However, the shoe seems to be on the other foot. In Georgia the Republican dominated legislature is discussing a Right to Life Amendment that determines the beginning of life, and now they want to keep up with every Georgia student's weight. Can you imagine the ramifications? By the way, they have also decided that we don't have the right to decide whether we want to buy alcohol on Sunday.

If life begins at conception as the Republicans have defined, then will an unborn child need a social security number? Will the parent be able to claim the child as a dependent? Can you imagine the lawsuits that will result? What about the private information about a student's weight? Who will have access to it? How will it be used? Will an overweight student be even more ostracized by the other kids. I can imagine the snickers and stares during "weigh-ins."

On the national scene, of course, the Republicans have messed in our private lives in the name of national security. They can access the history of books that we have checked out of the library. They have encouraged us to spy on each other and people have been investigated because of a book that someone saw them buy at a bookstore. This all reeks of the old Soviet Russia.

The Republicans, of course, continue to drag Ronald Reagan's name up as the greatest president of our time, and give him credit for "bringing down" Communism, both wishful thinking on their part. At they same time they pass more laws restricting the way we live our private lives.