Dr. Big Brother?

San Francisco is was known as the home of free love and doing your own thing. 'Frisco was the center of the alternative counter-culture.

Now the city by the bay is about to vote on whether to allow Big Brother to make medical decisions.

A group has managed to gather enough signatures to hold a vote on whether or not to outlaw circumcisions in San Francisco. The initiative would make it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail, for anyone to perform a circumcision on anyone under the age of 18.

What if it's a religious practice? Sorry. No dice.

What if there's a medical reason for it? Nope.

Personal preference? No.

Keeping it clean? Forget it.

Something, either the water, the enormous amounts of drugs ingested in the 60's and 70's or the escalation of property values, has turned the once-contrarian, anti-government population of San Francisco into a hotbed of zealots who feel it's their ordained role to tell everyone else how to live their lives.

I'll grant the proponents of the initiative that the baby placed on the table had no say in the matter, but does anyone even remember it? Was anyone really scarred by undergoing a procedure they knew nothing about when they were a newborn?

Little kids also have no say in when they go to the doctor, what medicines they're prescribed, where they go to school, when they go to bed, what they eat at dinner any any number of other choices that parents have been deemed responsible enough to make for their children.

Parents are given the task of doing what they believe is in their childrens' best interests. I, for one, don't want the government looking over my shoulder second-guessing every decision I make for my kids. The essence of this country is that we are free to do as we wish so long as we aren't harming those around us. You know, live and let live.

But the meddlers can't leave it at that. Instead of trusting people to do what they think is right (and most folks do a pretty good job of it), they want to peek into your bedroom, or your living room or your backyard and tell you what you should be doing.

If you don't want to circumcise your child, fine. Don't do it. If you don't want your kids eating french fries with their burgers, great. Don't order them. If you don't want your kids eating refined flour, fantastic. Don't use it. If you think spanking is wrong, good. Don't do it. If you don't want your kids watching television, climbing trees or playing competitive sports, wonderful. Don't let them.

But don't abdicate the role of parenting to the government. And don't stick your noses in my business.