TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Robbing Any Citizen's Freedom Limits Everyone

ADVERTISEMENT

By DOMENICK J. MAGLIO

Neo Traditionalist

Published: January 23, 2008

Society should protect the innocent from despicable acts. Murder, sexual and physical abuse, destruction of property and reckless behavior need to have severe legal consequences in order to deter them. However, the more laws enacted, the less free the society. The more choices citizens have, the freer the society.
When governments attempt to legislate preferences, manners and decency it is over-stepping its mandate. It is going down a slick path to oppression.
Our government has passed laws against smoking in restaurants, on beaches and even in one's home. NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg, decided educating the people about the dangers of trans fats would be ineffective. Instead he decreed that restaurants had to stop their inclusion in foods. Congress has established laws, which have curtailed our freedom of speech by making it a crime to utter certain words. A common expression today can be a "hate crime" tomorrow. Now California is attempting to require "programmable communicating thermostats" in homes so the government can control the heat and cooling during what is deemed an "emergency event."
Unnecessary laws are stifling our liberty. Free people collectively make better decisions than do government elites.
People in a free nation have the right to associate with anyone as long as they do not advocate violence against others. Some individuals who want to control their neighbors can join a deed-restricted community. Each individual voluntarily agrees to limits his choices as well as his neighbor's. These deed-restricting contracts can stipulate the color of one's house, number and kind of plants allowed and exclude children. Their rights are not being taken from them; instead they are expressing the freedom to live in an environment that decreases their neighbor's and their own options. They agree to restrict their own freedoms.
It is a radically different act when the government limits individual's rights and freedoms. When government unnecessarily limits our choices it is against the interest of the people. It is despotism.
Even though all citizens should be agitated by the government abridging our freedoms, most of us do not protest. Our silence allows government to whittle away our independent choices. Limiting the rights of specific groups of people creates a political environment that makes all of our freedoms vulnerable. Our society should not change by the whim of politicians but by free individuals making choices over time. Rather than being dictated to by "Big Brother," people make better decisions on their own to change their behavior
Laws and regulations are strangling our once great and free nation. America is a country with shrinking liberties. Our children, our land, homes, eating habits, water and air are becoming the domain of the state. Our silence has allowed many of our freedoms to be snatched from our neighbors and thus ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Since most of these laws do not impact us immediately we take the lazy citizen approach and ignore them. We are unwilling to recognize that government's attempt to unnecessarily restrict any of us will eventually affect all of us.
It is our civic responsibility to become aware of issues and make educated decisions how best to protect our neighbor's freedom. Our fellow citizen's freedom insures our self interest of being free.
Our liberties will be lost by our not being vigilant in standing up for the rights of others. Losing our liberties in a dramatic coup or piecemeal still ends in a tyrannical existence.

Dr. Domenick Maglio, Ph.D., is the author of "Invasion Within" and "Essential Parenting." He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School. Visit: www.drmaglio.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT