Rules on Meddling

"We got us a real horse race goin' here, ain't we?" Jon turned to appraise his neighbor, who was unashamedly reading over his shoulder at Denny's restaurant where he went for breakfast while the kids were at church. The man's odor, matted hair, beard, leathery skin, and threadbare clothes gave no doubt he had been a vagrant for many years.

"I'm just visiting North Cal this weekend but it looks interesting, So who's going to win this horse race?" Jon replied. Mac stirred his coffee, and said, "I know it don't look like it now, but I think that folksinger lady is gonna catch that politician and whup him by a whisker. Serves him right, too—tryin' to take over and make his own rules like he was the king of right and wrong. "You gotta have rules, but there's a difference between rules and meddlin." "What's the difference, as you see it?" Jon asked. "Well, rules is like tellin' a kid he's got to brush his teeth. Meddlin' is saying he can't do it with a red toothbrush, because a red toothbrush is evil or somethin'." Jon stifled a laugh at the man's surprising analogy.

Mac continued, "And them homosexuals, they shouldn't be foolin' around and gettin' married and the like. Men should be with women, everybody knows that. That's the rules of nature. But tellin' a homosexual, 'You can't live in our state because you're too weird, that there is meddlin'." Jon acknowledged that the man had a point. There were rules and there was meddling. Jon admired Daniel Bellardi for taking a stand on the moral issues plaguing both ends of the former state of California. But in his attempt to establish a morally sound environment in North California, had he crossed the line between enforcing rules and meddling?