No place for Congress

Assisted suicide in Oregon is a prime recent example. Twice the voters of that state said they wanted to have the option -- in the event of a terribly painful terminal illness -- of choosing to end their life on their own terms and relatively painlessly. Yet twice the Attorney General of the United States has stepped in to overrule the voters of Oregon. In other words, never mind what you want; we're going to decide what's best for you.

We all need to beware, because, politicians and political appointees claiming to be oh so moral and upstanding are often trying to hide a personal political agenda.

Last week, when they butted into the Terri Schiavo case -- which has to be the most emotional circumstance imaginable for all the family members -- our federal representatives have now decided they will double as our doctors, our lawyers, and our priests.

It's bad enough that they want to tell people what they can do in private aspects of their lives. But these supposedly holier-than-thou politicians are also eroding our system of separation of powers with their reckless actions. The three pillars of our political system are our three branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. This is one of the tenets our nation was founded upon, and in the Schiavo case, Congress is overriding the judicial branch. By doing so, they are taking a sledgehammer to our democratic system.

The men and women of Congress appear to be way out of order lately. We wonder, just what are they going to do next?

JB

END Editorial