PEOPLE CAN'T BE TRUSTED

The real and unifying message from government, the left, and the right these
days is that people can't be trusted. Our Attorney General John Ashcroft has
been attacking Oregon's Assisted Suicide laws. What this law allows is that
after consultations with two doctors you can be given a lethal dose of a
sedative. Thus avoiding having to swallow a bottle of aspirin. Because
swallowing about 100 aspirin at once can kill you. So Mr. Ashcroft is trying
to keep us from going down the slippery slope any one can go down with five
bucks and a trip to the grocery store. What exactly is his point? People
can't be trusted with lethal doses of medicine?

What about those in very severe pain who have to keep a lethal dose of their
medication around to avoid having to go to the pharmacy twice a day? Why
does the Republican Attorney General want to treat us like children? I
thought that was Janet Reno's job.

The "We Don't Trust You" political party in America has two wings. They are
generally referred to as the left and the right. The left doesn't trust you
with your money or your self defence. Wealth and guns drive them nuts. For
them taxes are not high enough because the rich are still rich and there are
too many armed citizens. The right doesn't trust you to follow the right
moral code. Drugs and abortion drive them nuts. The first because the
government can't do anything and the second because it won't.

They have forgotten who the kings are in America. There are 280 million of
them. All over the country. In a country with 280 million sovereigns things
have to be done a little differently. Because it is possible that any thing
you do may infringe on the Rights of One of these Sovereigns. So it pays to
be careful. A police officer in Texas once got killed (generally that is all
it takes) for trying to enforce a seat belt law. Then the killer used the
officer's radio to report his crime. When asked his motive he said he felt
the seat belt laws were an infringement on his rights. Don't ya just love
America!

Our Founding Fathers were very smart to set up a very limited government.
With limited powers. There is an important reason for this. Every Sovereign
has his own ideas on how to live. Allow each of the 280 million Sovereigns
to make just ten rules and that is near 3 billion rules (actually not much
different in effect from what we have today). So what the Founders in their
wisdom did was to say - the purpose of government is keeping the peace. No
coercion by threat of violence, no fraud in financial transactions (what you
tell your mate about where you were last night is not a government job), and
defence against acts of war. That's it.

To make this all work we have to have an immense amount of tolerance for
behavior we don't like. As long as it doesn't threaten the peace. Once we
give the government the job of morals police, and the job of wealth police
we are no longer sovereign we are subjects. Being subjects does not sit well
with most Americans. They rebel. Which is one of the reasons that alcohol
prohibition did not work and drug prohibition will not work. Too many Kings
engaged in consciousness modification personally or turning a blind eye to
other Kings engaged in it. The same pretty much for the anti-sprawl crowd.
Why is there sprawl? Because people are actually willing to pay for land to
go with the house. Room for trees and a garden. This is the essential beauty
of America. You can live the life you want to if you can support it.
Harley's and tattoos or diamonds and Benzes.

What people in American government need to figure out is that for the most
part Americans can take care of themselves and will do the right thing
without being asked if given half a chance. Many Americans would pay extra
for wind electricity if government would let them, for example. Once
personal responsibility and a high general level of moral standards is a
given then the basic job of government is to see how little it can interfere
with our lives not how much. The high general level of trust is such that if
you put your name on a piece of paper the people you do business with assume
they will get paid based on your signature (and proper ID) alone. It is one
of the reasons we maintain a first world economy and first world morals -
trust and tolerance.

To learn more about the basis of the limited American Federal Government go
to: http://mywebpage.netscape.com/msimon669/index.html where you can find a
copy of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist
Papers and other good stuff.

M. Simon is an industrial controls designer and Free Market Green.

(c) M. Simon - All rights reserved.

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