How typical... one more opportunity for big gov to be our daddy.

Listen, everyone... regardless of which side of the aisle you align yourself
with, this has got to come down to personal liberty and responsibility.
This is in the same vein as helmet laws for motorcycles and seatbelt laws
for cars. Are they effective a saving lives? Absolutely. Is it a good
idea to use them? Without question. Should free citizens of this country
be forced into using them it they would otherwise choose not to? Certainly
not.

I have a 19 month old little girl. When she, her mother and I go out on my
little boat, she wears her PFD (as is the law) but her mother and I do not.
When I go out alone with my little girl, I put mine one BEFORE I deploy the
boat. They are decisions *I* make based on my personal judgment of the
situation.

The 750 boaters who died in '02 did so as a result of decisions they made
as individuals. Tragic, yes. However, if everytime someone dies were are
then likely to be compelled by government to relinquish yet another personal
choice then we cease to be a free people. Suggestions are great. Strongly
worded advice is wonderful. Just let me make the final choice, stupid or
not

I agree completely, with one very important caveat:

Don't want to wear a helmet, a seat belt, or wear a PFD in a small, open boat?
No problem.
You shouldn't have to.

However, with personal freedom comes personal responsibility. No helmet, seat
belt, or PFD? Don't expect the taxpayers to search for you at public expense,
haul you to the hospital at public expense, cure you or bury you at public
expense, pay for your rehab or subsidize your survivors.

The risks you assume when you eschew basic safety precautions should be your
risks and yours alone. Perhaps you have the right to expose your own family to
the risk of loss of a breadwinner, etc, but why should everybody in society be
asked to pay for one individual's stubborn streak or stupidity?

"Big Daddy" not oly sets the rules, he's there to bail you out when things go
bad.
Don't want to follow the rules? OK. Just don't expect the bail out. Very
simple.