1 Civil Liberty, Take it Down, Pass it Around, No Civil Liberties Left on the Wall…
So, the title is a little windy…sue me or get over it.
The United States is a nation of freedoms and democracy where the people are not only free but encouraged to govern themselves. A government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” isn’t that what Lincoln called it in his Gettysburg address? So why then are we not allowed to make our own decisions? Why are city councils deciding we, as consenting adults, are no longer allowed to kill ourselves with our cancer sticks while we feed our alcohol addictions? Why are state Senators telling women they cannot make decisions regarding our own bodies?
This of the people, by the people thing really gets me stirred up. I realize that we can’t put everything to a vote or we’d never do anything in this country but hold elections. But issues that directly affect us, affect our lives, affect our freedoms; issues such as where and when we can smoke, if and how we can abort a pregnancy; should, without question, be put to a public vote. Not only be put to a public vote but the vote should be publicized and made known to everyone of legal voting age. For at least a week, if not longer, before the vote is held it should be plastered all over the local news stations, the newspapers, fliers stapled to telephone poles… That way if you don’t vote, you have no reason to complain about the results and no excuse for not voting.
In this country, people are made to find information on their own. Which is all fine and dandy if you know where to look…or want to take the time to look. But the problem is people either don’t know where to look, don’t want to look, or don’t know they have to look. Governments know this and hide announcements of public issue voting on page 14D where no one bothers to look. That way, they have met the obligation to inform the public but no one ever set a standard of how the public should be informed.
What brought me to this rant? One more U.S. city has enforced a smoking ban as of 10:00am local time on January 11. Louisville, KY has joined the list of smoke free cities. Okay, I am a smoker living in a smoke free city but that’s not the reason it ticks me off. Well, not the whole reason, anyway. When I was in college, the city I was living in at the time implemented a ban. Within a few short months one cocktail waitress (er… “server”) was raped and murdered and another severely beaten on their cigarette breaks at work because they were no longer allowed to smoke inside the bars where they worked. In a city of roughly 100,000 people. Some barkeeps in the area started sending bouncers outside anytime their waitresses left to smoke. Others simply refused to adhere to the ban, stating that they were not putting the welfare of staff and patrons at risk over a ridiculous law they had nothing to do with in the first place.
Ban supporters will say that smokers can quit or smoke in their cars if they are concerned about their safety. But in some cities, smoking in their cars is not even an option. In some cities, government officials are considering (and in others, they already have) widening the jurisdiction of the ban to include public sidewalks, parking lots and…yes, boys and girls, private properties such as cars.
If someone tries to tell me that I cannot sit in my car with my windows rolled up and hotbox myself into an early grave, they are going to be met with a severely unpleasant response. No one asked me if I wanted cigarettes and smoking to be outlawed and if they had they would have heard a loud and resounding, “Hell no!”
To bring the whole rant full circle, how can we conscientiously send military troops to foreign countries to implement democracy, a government where the citizens are free to make their own choices, when our choices and liberties are stripped from us right and left?
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