(editorial from West Virginia "The State Journal" newspaper)

Lactation Today, Tomorrow, Forever
Posted 5/25/2006 06:00 AM

Lawmakers often take the easy path rather than work on the important issues facing the Mountain State.


http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=11147&catid=159

(segment below is about the last third of this editorial, link above)

The new issue of phony moral outrage being foisted on us is breastfeeding. While women have managed to do this without government intervention for millennia, we are told that there is nursing. 

It's another perfect do-gooder issue. They can create a phony crisis and offer a solution that empowers and vindicates them. And those who oppose them can be shouted down as sexist or, gasp, anti-child. 

It's a national movement, and all but eight states have succumbed to the cry for breastfeeding on demand. The bill died in West Virginia again last year, but the "lactivists" (yes, they call themselves that) already are pushing hard. 

What they want is to require that anyone who allows the public into their establishment must allow breastfeeding anyplace on the premises. No exceptions. 

The manager at the Radio Shack is free to tell me I can't eat a steak hoagie while browsing for cell phones. He is also free to tell me that while the store has a bathroom, it is not for customers. 

I might leave hungry and in some distress, but that's his right. Just as it is my right not to shop at Radio Shack. 

But the soldiers of lactation think shopkeepers shouldn't have the right to dictate their customers' behavior, and since only a monster would say their constitutional rights are more important, you'd better agree. 

And in time, scared lawmakers, especially ones with some anti-feminist baggage, will succumb to the threats and pass the law. 

But for all of you who consider my concerns just so many pygmy mammoth bones in the sand dune of government, consider this: There are enough pushers of petty outrage on all sides to make sure our already overwhelmed lawmakers never see straight. 

Lobbyists are forever begging for everything from hikes for the greyhound breeding fund to the right of babies to nurse in electronics stores that things like the tax code and decisions on road projects have to wait and wait and wait. 

The easy work always gets done before the hard. Our legislators' soft hands are killing this state, and the "lactivists" and their ilk are helping them do it. 

Chris Stirewalt can be reached by e-mail at [log in to unmask] 

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