Several bills that would make marriage counseling mandatory before two people are allowed to wed would give the legislature authority over love.

State Rep. Joanne Voorhees and state Sen. Alan Sanborn have sponsored a bill that endorses premarital counseling in an attempt to promote healthy, long-lasting marriages. Couples who choose not to attend the counseling would have to wait a 27-day period instead of the standard three.

It's true the divorce rate is more than 50 percent, and it's obvious that many couples don't know what they're getting into. But granting the legislature power over two adult individuals and their decision to wed is absurd. It's not the government's role to make people's family lives happy.

The government should stick to making sure marriages are between two people, not between relatives and not abusive. To tell a couple that they aren't in love with each other is not in the government's job description.

Also, where will the money come for this initiative? Who will pay the marriage counselors? It is unnecessary to spend our tax money on an idealistic plan like this.

This bill is a proposal for a quick fix to a major problem. Divorce has been an ongoing and major trend in society. It can't be expected to simply be solved by yet another government promotion of family.

A few mandatory premarital counseling sessions probably won't do much, especially when couples are sporting rose-colored glasses and googly eyes over their future spouses. If a couple wouldn't willingly attend something like this on its own, then the two aren't going to benefit from it.

This is not to say that two people in love shouldn't take the initiative to get to know everything they can about one another. It's important for couples to know what they're getting into, to consider money, children and lifestyle, and to try and pick people they can be happy with long term.

These decisions should be left up to the couple, though, not the government. It is not the state's role to verify love.