An open letter to all legislators on the subject of "the children."

As someone who is still nominally considered a "child," I'd just like to respectfully ask all legislators out there to stop doing things for me. Really, I appreciate the gestures, but I can take care of myself, thanks. I can handle violent video games, I can handle cartoon tobacco ads, I can handle hanging out in a smoky restaurant, I can handle the possibility of coming into contact with a naughty website on the internet, I can handle eating fast food, I can handle raunchy song lyrics (and don't try and tell me that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is in fact about a chick named Lucy who is in the sky wearing diamonds...I'm onto you, you child of the '60s), and yes, I can even handle the possibility of drinking a beer or three at a party. I know its hard for you to grasp, considering its been 30+ years since you were this age, but us youngsters are smarter than you give us credit for. Most of us, in fact, do not go out and shoot up schools because the video games showed us how, or choose to smoke because they have a cool mascot, or drink completely out of control because, *GASP*, someone was allowed to buy a keg and take it to a...PARTY!!! We all know what goes on at those parties...nothing but drugs, sex, and alcohol. Can't have our little ones exposed to that.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say, is that you need to quit using me in your grab for control and power over the populace. It's getting old, and more and more people are catching on. In fact, among those of us who still care about individual liberty, its become a joke. Using "the children" as the basis for a law has been relegated to the "scary quote" category.

So, in conclusion, if you are going to make power grabs to get people to do things your way, leave me and my ilk out of it. In short, leave us the hell ALONE!

P.S.- If you are really concerned about drinking, you should really police your own house first. Not to name any names, but there's this one Senator who has really gone downhill in recent years...oh, who am I kidding, he hasn't been fully conscious since about 1969; he drove a car off a bridge, the rest is history. Anyway, his name rhymes with Ked Tennedy. He's somewhat famous, kind of a big deal...I hear he owns many leather-bound books.

(For background info on what inspired this rant, go here and here.)