Freedom vs. Safety

Is safety worth giving

up your personal liberty?

Nerf society of mindless government slaves ...

Every day the federal government as well as state and local governments pass laws to make us a safer society. As they make society safer they are slowly chewing away at our rights, liberties, and our personal freedoms. Where is the balance? Is a safe nerf ball society worth giving up our freedoms for. At what point do we tell the government that we would rather die than to become mindless government slaves? Where is the line between where our right to choose is more important than the government's right to impose their standards on us. Even if it's for our own good?

We now have law regulating everything. We are forced to wear seat belts. We have to wear motorcycle helmets. Kids have to ride in the back seat. Smokers can't even smoke outside. We can't smoke a joint in the privacy of our own homes. Kids are expelled from schools for possession of nonprescription drugs. The government wants to regulate abortion, religion, sex, child discipline, marriage, and free speech. They want to control what you can post on the web, what your kids wear to school, where you can walk across the street, what you can watch in titty bars, what you can say at the office, where you can pray, where you can get high, who you have sex with, what kind of sex you have, what jokes you can tell, and when you can spank your children.

The Government is moving to regulate every aspect of our lives in order to protect us from ourselves. But is it worth our freedom and liberty?

Eliminating Civil Liberties Reduces Crime

Reducing crime is easy. All we have to do is to eliminate the Constitution and get rid of all these rights. If a person commits a crime then just shoot 'em. Why bother with a trial or a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Why bother spending tax money to put these people in jail? So we fry a few innocent people. We're eliminating crime and saving the taxpayer money. A bullet only costs a few cents. Wouldn't we all be safer if we just killed off all the lawbreakers and other undesirables? Wouldn't that cut down on crime?

You bet it would. It worked very well for Stalin and Hitler. In Russia, if you even thought about committing a crime you were killed. Russia under Stalin was a society of people who obeyed the law. But is that what we want here? I don't think so.

America isn't like World War II Russia. Not even close. But we are heading in that direction. Who would have thought that the police could come into your home without a warrant and haul you off to jail? Who would have thought that the government could take your house without convicting you of a crime? Who would have thought they could take your kids away without a conviction or a judge's order? If the police attack you, they charge you with a crime. You can go to jail for what other people do or fail to do. If you spank your kids, you go to jail. If your kids commit crimes or fail to attend school, you go to jail.

And this is supposed to be America, the home of the brave and the land of the free. But what does it mean to be free. To me, being free is the freedom to make my own decisions. I decide what I want to believe in. I decide if I want to risk my life by not wearing a seatbelt. I decide if I want to ruin my health by smoking cigarettes. (By the way, I'm an avid non-smoker.) I decide who I want to have sex with and how I will pay for it. I decide if I want my kids to sit in the front seat of my car or in the back end of my pickup truck. I decide if I want to get drunk or stoned. I decide if my kids need their butt swatted. I decide if I want to go to church and what church I want to go to. I decide if I want my kids on drugs and be free of courts or schools who try to force my kids to take drugs because the teachers are boring.

I want to be free to own a gun to protect myself and my family if I want to. I want to be free to Burn the Flag if the government gets too far out of line. I want to be free to say FUCK YOU on the Internet to those who want to tell me I can't say FUCK YOU. If I choose to live a lifestyle that will result in my burning in Hell forever, then that's my choice. Freedom is not a government who subjects me to their moral standards. I am a motherfucking asshole and I am comfortable with who I am. If the government doesn't like it they can shove it up their ass. I'm free. Get used to it.

Personal Protections we don't want

Is it a good idea to wear a seatbelt? Yes it is. Should the government do the research and determine how much safer it is? Yes they should. Should they require car manufacturers to install seatbelts in new cars? Yes. Should they be allowed to run ads and put up billboards suggesting I wear my seatbelt? Sure. Should they be allowed to force me to wear a seatbelt? No. That's my choice. If I choose to be stupid, that's my right.

One could argue that if I was injured because I didn't wear my seatbelt that society might incur some kind of expense. Yes, it might happen. But freedom has a price. Our soldiers have gone to war and fought and died so that we can remain free. Freedom always has a cost. But it's worth the price.

There's no doubt that when people are free that bad things are going to happen to some people. If people are allowed to make choices then some people will make bad choices. When you have freedom and liberty, you have the freedom and liberty to screw up. You have the freedom to destroy your life. But would you rather be a mind slave to the government and have them control your life, or perhaps destroy your life for you? After all, there's no IQ test to be elected to public office. There are a lot of laws that are just plain stupid. Laws that it's the duty of the people to break in defiance of the government.

I hate cigarette smokers. I think you have to be a total idiot to smoke. And I support laws that restrict smoking inside a building where non-smokers have to breathe it. But when you're outside where the ratio of air to fumes is low, you have to be reasonable and let the idiots smoke. Does it make them less of an idiot because they are allowed to smoke? No. But this is America where you have the freedom to be an idiot if that's what you choose to do.

Should a Jehovah's Witness be allowed to die for lack of a blood transfusion? Definitely. Should a person be able to choose when and how they will die? Absolutely. Yet Jack Kevorkian rots in jail for helping people die who chose to die and needed a doctor to make it happen. Jack Kevorkian is a Saint and should be honored as a hero. But re rots in jail because society hasn't faced the reality that we all die. It's my life. It's my choice. The government has no right to decide that for me.

Government of the People

America is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It exist only to serve us, not to rule use. They don't give us our rights. Our rights are ours. Anyone who would take away our freedoms and liberties is committing treason to the Constitution and is an enemy of the people and an enemy of our nation. The people are the fourth branch of government and superior to all other branches.

It is our duty as freedom loving people to rise up and slap down the government when it gets out of line. If the people don't stand up and assert their liberties, they don't deserve them.