Free Lady Justice and the Candidate by Robert Thornhill Page A

realize that there are absolutely no laws governing who can create life and bring a child into this world? Anybody can do it regardless of health, financial stability, age, criminal record or how many children to whom they may have previously given birth.
        “I suspect that this is because the scriptures tell us to ‘go forth and multiply’ and who in their right mind would suggest that the government has the right to tell its citizens how many and under what circumstances they may have children? That smacks of Nazi Germany, doesn’t it?
        “Yet on the other end of the spectrum, we have terminal cancer patients dying agonizing, painful deaths with no quality of life because those same scriptures tell us, 'Thou shalt not kill.' "
        Ann jumped in, “So you believe in euthanasia?”
        “Ann, you’re missing the point. It doesn’t matter whether I believe in it or not. The right to die is a moral issue and not a legal one.
        “Whether you believe euthanasia or any moral issue for that matter, is right or wrong, depends on whether you attend a church, a synagogue, a temple, a mosque or nothing at all.
        “For our government to say ‘you can’t do that’ is a clear-cut violation of the separation of church and state.
        “As I said before, my candidacy is about the freedom to make choices, but the choices that are made have consequences.”
        “So what you’re saying is that if the majority of American citizens feel that something should not be allowed, they don’t have the right to insist that it not be allowed?”
        “That would be true if the ‘something’ that you describe is a moral issue and not a legal one.
        Let’s look at smoking for a moment. Over the past ten years, it has been proven conclusively that the use of tobacco is detrimental to a person’s health and there are far more non-smokers than smokers today, so with this overwhelming moral majority, why doesn’t the government make the use of tobacco illegal?
        “We have certainly taken the stand that one person’s tobacco use cannot infringe upon another’s, but what do you think would happen if tobacco was banned?
        “All we have to do is take a look at what happened during prohibition. Did making alcohol illegal make people stop drinking? Absolutely not! All that it did was create a black market for a substance that people chose to use.
        “This is a perfect example of the government trying to legislate morality .”
        “Then how do you decide what is the boundary between those things legal and those things moral? Where does gun control fit in this picture?”
        “Gun control is another perfect example. If strict gun control laws are ever enacted, millions of Americans will be transformed from law-abiding citizens into felons with the stroke of a pen. Like tobacco, alcohol, or a dozen other things that I could mention, the citizens of the United States simply DO NOT want their government making those decisions for them.”
        “So you oppose gun control?”
        “See, there, you’re doing it again. It doesn’t matter whether I like or dislike guns in the hands of our citizens. I’m not a member of the NRA, never have been and probably never will be, and I have never taken a dime of their money.
        “What I believe is that the American citizen has the right and the freedom to make that choice for himself.”
        “But it’s been proven that guns kill people.”
        “If you will pardon me for using a clichéd phrase, ‘Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.'
        “Do you remember that I said that my candidacy is about freedom of choice, but that the choices that we make have consequences?”
        She nodded.
        “Let’s take a look at all of the things that we have addressed this morning. I personally have never smoked tobacco, I use alcohol only moderately and I have never shot another human