I think everyone can agree on the gross levels of child abuse and neglect. There is very little doubt when flagrantly criminal acts are perpetrated against children that the laws need to be harsh.

However, I'm less clear on the issue of child endangerment. Certainly there's plenty of leeway in the law to accommodate situations where gross negligence comes into play. Equally there are sufficient grounds for intervention when blatantly irresponsible behavior is shown by the parents.

Unfortunately, the generic concept of child endangerment is simply too broad for me want to give the law too much power. The world is an inherently dangerous place, as much as we may wish it to be otherwise. As a result, there are many activities which can be dangerous to children; some intentionally and others not. When my granddaughter rides her horse, she is in a certain amount of danger, yet I would never accept someone else's decision regarding how this is handled.

In far too many cases, the law intervenes in situations where it may well be a matter of opinion or personal judgment.

While it has never been clearly articulated in a political sense, one of the most fundamental rights of a human being is the ability to raise one's children according to the beliefs and attitudes that are deemed most appropriate by the parents. While many of us may agree with some of these ideas, not all ideas are equally accepted by other adults. The concept of spanking has become more controversial, despite many adherents that think it is a quite appropriate tool when raising children.

Clearly childhood obesity is a serious problem, yet are we prepared to force parents to give up their rights, so the state can determine a better health program? Are we prepared to relinquish our ideas so that some third party can determine what should be taught to our children so that we don't limit their future potential?

Many people react quite emotionally and even violently at the thought of something happening to their children. This is a reasonable reaction, however, let's not be so quick to give the power to the law so that we may become victims of it, simply because the state disagrees with our parenting.

In particular, what makes this such a dangerous area politically is that so many people are willing to compromise adult rights in a blind effort to protect children. Some of the articles have suggested tortures and unspeakable acts to be performed against child molesters,

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