Apparently anything Rand Paul says is “controversial” these days, and that was certainly the case during a recent interview he did on Closing Bell this week. The subject at hand was the exhausting topic of vaccinations, (which the media can’t get enough of) but during the discussion, the Kentucky Senator said something which deserves more attention, and not just regarding vaccinations. Why this is controversial I don’t know.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) doubled down on his position that most vaccines should be voluntary, suggesting Monday that mandated immunization is an example of government overreach. “The state doesn’t own your children,” Paul said in an interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom and public health.” The Kentucky senator and potential 2016 hopeful received attention earlier in the day for his comment that people should be able to pick which immunizations to give their children.

It would be nice to not have that be a controversial statement, assuming we could dredge it up out of the vaccination debate, which has turned entirely toxic. (No pun intended.) Hillary Clinton was unintentionally correct when she titled one of her books, It Takes a Village. The problem is, that the title should have gone on to say, but only a village. Clinton was essentially arguing the opposite point (that society, and by default the government, was responsible for children) but a more accurate reading of that sentiment holds some truth. Parents are the primary stakeholder who bear full responsibility for the welfare of their kids and control over how they are raised. But in addition, a solid community with good neighbors – who are also good parents – and a solid church and positive social interactions can really add to the chances a kid has of making a go of it.

As to the vaccine question, I haven’t really wanted to dive into that particular pool. While I’d love to have the luxury of being an absolutist, there are a couple of things the government can and should do, assuming that citizens monitor them to ensure the government does them well. One of those is preventing massive depopulation through preventable (or at least containable) diseases. If there is insufficient education out there to ensure that kids are getting established, proven vaccines for dangerous, highly communicable diseases, then yes… I think mandating them is a good idea. It’s not that different from enforcing a quarantine on aid workers returning from Ebola stricken areas. It may looking like robbing the liberty of an individual, but it’s a safety measure to ensure the continuity of the entire herd.

With that said, I may disagree with Rand Paul on that one side issue, but he is at least making the point that in the vast majority of other cases, the government needs to defer to the wishes of the parents when it comes to raising children. And if the children fail, the question of where to place the blame is fairly easily answered.