By Steve Byas

"It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones." This piece of advice came from Calvin Coolidge, reflecting on his time in the Massachusetts Legislature.

It is good advice, and it makes a fine companion quotation to another fine quotation from the man Coolidge would later serve as vice-president: Warren Harding. In a rejection of the terrible "progressive" philosophy that has plagued our body politic for decades, Harding, running for president in 1920 said, "All human ills are not curable by legislation."

Harding used the term ills to refer to the unfortunate circumstances of living, not some sickness, or health problem. Unfortunately, there exist far too many persons in our society who believe that they can "cure" not only unfortunate circumstances, but that they should simply dictate (like a dictator) how we live our lives.

Along comes state Representative Richard Morrissette (D-Oklahoma City), who has filed legislation requiring school kids be checked for weight problems on an annual basis. The cost of the scales would be less than $3 million Morrissette said (which reminds me of the comment of Illinois Congressman Everett Dirksen, who once said that in Congress, "a million here, and a million there, and after awhile, it adds up to some real money."

My concern here, however, is not mainly about the money. It is the chilling idea, rapidly growing in acceptance, that it is the job of the government to tell us what to do with our own lives. Even home schooled children would be screened, if Morrissette has his way. For those children found fatter than what Morrissette finds acceptable, a letter would be sent to the parents of the fat kid, or the too skinny kid.

If parents ignored the letter, the matter could then be turned over to the state Department of Human Services for possible investigation.

Morrissette said that the intent of his legislation is to educate parents about their child who might not be eating the right kind of food!

About twenty years ago, I wrote a column in which I opined that the seat belt laws set a terrible precedent. I contended that once the precedent was established that government could tell someone to buckle up for their own protection, and not just to stop from hurting someone else (the traditional role of government), government would move to tell us what to eat. I caught flak about that prediction at the time, but it has come to pass.

While Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has simply asked for the people of his city to voluntarily lose weight, I am fearful that his efforts (intentionally or not) are laying the groundwork for government requirements for you to hold to a certain weight.

In that same column, I said that these efforts were part of the move toward socialized medicine. After all, if the government is going to pay for your health care, they want you to be healthy. That means wearing your seat belt, eating the right kind of foods, and exercising. In the novel by George Orwell, 1984, the central character of the book, Winston Smith, is awakened by the telescreen, and ordered to do his morning calisthenics. Adolf Hitler required Germans to work out at the gym, and other such stuff.

I say let's tell the Fat Police, mind your own business.