The legality of abortion has been addressed in other bills and litigated in the courts. The limits on end of life procedures have been addressed and litigated. Does anyone think commercial health insurance dollars aren't being used in both of these procedures? Even if your specific policy excludes abortion coverage, the company behind your policy is most likely offering policies that do. You can buy policies that don't cover prenatal care or delivery coverage, but those companies sell policies that do. The corporate structure of health care coverage depends upon profits from all their policies to produce a positive return to their stockholders. And, rest assured, the premiums on your policy reflect the overall risk of the parent company.

I don't buy alcoholic beverages for anyone with my money. If I'm in the company of those who do, we go Dutch. Does that mean I should demand laws that prevent my tax dollars being used to furnish alcoholic beverages in any setting? If I am a vegetarian should I refuse to support government programs that deliver meat to anyone? Of course I can! I can oppose or support whatever laws I want to, but should I allow those single issues to override all others? Well, some will say their issues are moral and theological, but I can point out a few issues they don't fanatically oppose or support that are contrary to their professed theology. If you can't compromise you will find yourself living a rather secluded existence, and if you're like me, you might even have to compromise with yourself, now and then.

We want to distrust Congress and the administration, regardless of which party is represented. The idea that when they get to Washington they can't be trusted is negativism extreme. Those people who make it to Washington started out from home, wherever that is. They are a reflection of the culture and environment from whence they came. The integrity of the talk show hosts, newscasters, pro choice or pro life leaders, liberals or conservatives, all are a product of the culture and environment they have experienced.

Listen carefully when you go to the coffee shop, barbershop, beauty salon, Tupperware party, Sunday School class, church dinner, pool hall, tavern, Facebook, Kansas Free Press, or wherever your peers congregate and talk. Do you ever question some of the accounts of local happenings? Do you ever suspicion that some folks have stretched the truth just a little? Do we find embellishment of the truth, now and then? Of course you do, if not you have selective hearing or are extremely naive. We learn, even as children, that we have to consider our source of information, weigh the motives and respect the authority. We learn, or should learn, early on how to identify authority in respect to how much we perceive our risks of defiance or the consequences of ignoring what we are told.

Are our politicians just average football fan/soccer Mom types? Not really! And the farther up the ladder we go the less common ordinary are those representatives. But, they all started out as infants. They all learned how to measure ethics and morals as they grew and expanded their exposures to culture and environment. The opportunity to do good or evil just expands, the higher up and older we get.

Now with all this in mind, who do we blame or give credit to for how our national leaders behave and perform their duties? Hmmm -- Is it you and me?