My late grandmother once insisted at a wedding that when I danced with my date, both our arms must be fully extended, our bodies two arm lengths apart. Ever the obedient grandson, I complied. As my date and I danced, you could have parked a Buick between us.

Thank goodness Texas Rep. Al Edwards isn’t in my family too.

Edwards also thinks it’s his job to tell people how to dance, and he recently filed legislation in Texas to stop “sexually suggestive” high school cheerleading performances. The New York Times reported Edwards filed the bill after seeing several “ribald” performances in his district (Several? Thank goodness our politicians are researching the issues, right?)..

The point, of course, isn’t that it’s OK for high school girls to perform suggestive cheerleading routines. It’s not. Rather, it’s that the government shouldn’t legislate this. It should be responsibly controlled by involved parents, cheerleading organizations and competitions – where vulgarity and suggestive movements are already penalized.

And that wasn’t the only case of a government sticking its nose where it didn’t belong. Last week, the U.S. Congress held hearings on steroid use in baseball. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling all attended. No one admitted using steroids.

Don’t get me wrong. Steroids are bad for the game and for those who take them. Players who do use them are cheaters, set a terrible example to kids and should face stricter penalties. But it should be up to baseball, not Congress, to clean up its act. And if baseball won’t act, the fans, not the government, should hold it accountable.

And then there’s the tragic case of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was ordered to be removed by a state court. Her case involves an unimaginably horrible disagreement in which her husband claims she wouldn’t want to be kept alive in her condition, but her parents disagree. Congress quickly authored a bill allowing a federal court to rule in the case. But it should not be up to Congress. It should be between her family and the courts, and both the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court have already refused to overrule the removal of the feeding tube.

There is something unsettling when the U.S. government tries to legislate morality. Even those who agree with the government’s decisions today have to be concerned with the precedent this sets and ask themselves: Will I still agree when a different group is in power, perhaps with a different moral focus?

Making matters worse, we are neglecting serious issues. President Bush’s latest slash-and-spend budget includes a $350 million cut to veterans home funding, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. said It seems those whose volume is often loudest in calling on others to “support the troops” need to put their money where their mouths are.

And that’s just one issue. There’s still oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Halliburton overbilling taxpayers for services in Iraq. Exporting prisoners for torture in other countries. The administration’s unethical use of propaganda. Where are the televised hearings on these issues?

Our government needs to concern itself less with issues of morality and more with matters of state. After all, my grandmother was a great lady with wisdom in many matters – it’s just that dance instruction wasn’t one of them.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.