Guidelines or Mandates?

There’s something wrong when a simple fund raising opportunity becomes a crime because the nutritional value, or lack thereof, doesn’t meet the state’s guidelines.  A local coach in Houston, Texas, is in serious trouble because he offered fried chicken as a fund raiser, putting his school at risk of having to pay enormous fines to the state.

I use the word guideline; but guideline infers by definition that the ultimate decision is left up to the individual.  Perhaps the state should learn the difference between a guideline and a mandate.

‘“It’s critical parents and schools understand the state guidelines and know that the state is very serious in terms of enforcing those guidelines,” said Giles.”

There was school in Bexar County, Texas, which suggested a line of action not too long ago.  (To suggest, isn’t that the same as a guideline?)  The issue was forcing students to wear RFID identification.  There was a similar line, a line which skirted the word mandate as if to soften the thumb pressing down on these folk’s heads.

“We are simply asking your daughter to wear an ID badge as every other student and adult on the Jay campus is asked to do.”

These folks need to obtain a dictionary in order to understand the meaning of the words they use.  (Sounds better than saying they need to sample what they’re shoveling)  If you ask someone to act a certain way it implies the possibility of rejection while if you direct or mandate a line of action; well, you see my point.

There was a news item out of Florida explaining how the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) was going to institute random checkpoints to snare unlicensed drivers.  They believe drivers automatically have voluntarily submitted in advance to such abuses by virtue of the fact that driving is a privilege, not a right.

“FHP says the checkpoints will be conducted during daytime hours, and generally cause delays of five minutes or less.”

The FHP must not have gotten the memo or never heard the Supreme Court ruled such random check points are against the law; kind of like Homeland Security setting up check points, ostensibly to find terrorists and an ever lengthening list of weapons of mass destruction along our fruited plains.  (Pardon me while I clean the edges of my mouth after puking in the trash can)

“In 1979, (Delaware v. Prouse) the Supreme Court stated that, absent articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist is unlicensed or that an automobile is not registered, or that either the vehicle or an occupant is otherwise subject to seizure for violation of law, stopping an automobile and detaining the driver in order to check his driver’s license and the registration of the automobile are unreasonable.”

Of course check points are all part of making our country a safer place, kind of like the prison mess hall where they make sure you only get a spoon because a sharp knife would jeopardize everyone.  Never mind that our 4^th Amendment has been cut to ribbons by well meaning elitists who could care less about individual God given rights.

“That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.”  Ezra Taft Benson

If these folks have their way with guidelines to save us from becoming over weight from fried chicken, home made cakes or pastries sold as fund raising items, RFID chips to make sure we’re where they think we should be at all times; shouldn’t we say thank you?   Heaven forbid we become mobile without first having some authority check our underwear for bomb making equipment, semi-automatic handguns, assault weapons and/or nuclear material intended to blow up half of Montana, Idaho and points north.

Well, at least these various government agencies didn’t presume to make their unreasonable, and I might add, unconstitutional guidelines into mandates or they’d be displaying characteristics associated with totalitarian regimes.

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.