Thursday, May 13, 2010

I am thinking about daytime curfews........

From a pragmatic stand point, yes, it could seem necessary, but from a liberty stand point, it's just moving us further from where we ought to be. The government will always come up with a "good reason" to limit our freedom. For safety, security, etc. But then we end up a LONG way from where we should be. And it happens little by little, unnoticed by most people. Frogs in the kettle.

We have truancy laws in place - there is no need for a daytime curfew. If the current laws aren't sufficient then that should be addressed.

If kids don't want to stay in school, then we should address the reasons for that.

Infringing upon parental responsibility will do nothing to encourage it.

In the Dallas city council meetings they were telling us, don't worry we won't bother your neighborhoods (meaning white neighborhoods), that's not the point. Then they said we won't bother homeschoolers, they can get an ID! That's the last thing we want!

Curfews only limit the freedom of law abiding people, those bent on committing crimes will continue to do so. They just change their working hours.

Studies have shown there is no conclusive evidence that curfews are effective.

Whether or not you mind being stopped and ID'd is not the issue. The right to freely travel and assemble is infringed upon when people are inconvenienced unnecessarily by the police. We are talking about basic unalienable rights.

No one should live in fear of being caught doing something that isn't a crime. We should feel free to go about our lives and not feel apprehensive when we see a patrol car or someone in uniform.

I for one don't appreciate being pulled over late at night so they can check on me and ask where I'm going and where I've been. That is none of their business. If I'm not committing a real crime or suspected of it, then they have no business to approach me or stop me or ask me anything. No matter what hour. Same goes for our youth. Especially young adults who could pass for children.

We don't think of curfews as a form of martial law, but that's really what it is. We don't think of where the easy acceptance of such policy can lead.

Our youth have the same basic unalienable rights we do.

Our country is becoming more and more over criminalized. Laws that aren't enforced teach us to disregard the law. Encroaching or unconstitutional rules teach us to disrespect the law and its agents.

Isn't this quote the truth?

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand


...Thanks to our media and many government officials, Americans have become conditioned to view the state as our protector and the solution to every problem. Whenever something terrible happens, especially when it becomes a national news story, people reflexively demand that government do something. This impulse almost always leads to bad laws and the loss of liberty. It is completely at odds with the best American traditions of self-reliance and rugged individualism.

Do we really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, and metal detectors? Do we really believe government can provide total security? ..... Or can we accept that liberty is more important than the illusion of state-provided security?...

Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons. Ron Paul

For liberty and justice for all,

Debbie McKee

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