In 2013 in the United
States, we enacted almost 40,000 new laws. Every law enacted required
someone to do something, or not do something, he or she might
otherwise have done or not have done. In other words; our freedoms
to do as we wish have been reduced 40,000 times just last year, and
we have been around almost 237 years!
We have over 330 state and
federal gun laws on the books. Our US Code is more than 200,000 pages
long. Do you think it's even possible for any of us to go though even
one day and not break some law?
Each year when Congress is
in session we have 535 “lawmakers” making laws. What else do they
have to do? They are the proverbial hammer looking for nails. How
many laws do we ever hear are being taken off the list? Why would
they, they are lawMAKERS.
I was thinking of this
when that dust up occurred in Arizona. The press defined it as the
“anti-gay” bill. Of course logic tells us if a bill is “anti”
something, it must be “pro” something else. Why didn't the press
choose to call it the “pro business” bill? (We can make an
educated guess on that one.)
The Arizona law would have
given legal protection for homosexuals to be served by any business
with which they chose to do business. Fair enough. The other side
is, it would have removed the freedom of a business to do business
with whom they chose to do business. In our daily activities we
choose what behaviors to perform and which ones not to perform. When
the government makes laws, they tell us what behaviors we can perform
and which we cannot. That's a lot of power to give to a group of
people who have single-digit approval ratings.
More laws, less freedom.
To my understanding there
has been no situation in Arizona in the past where this
anti-discrimination law would have applied, and if there were, how
many people do you think would have been affected? There are two
publicized incidents in other states where this discrimination has
occurred; a photographer and a baker who refused to participate in a
same sex ceremony. How many same sex couples would even want the most
important day in their lives photographed by someone, and catered by
someone, who expressed open opposition to the ceremony itself? (This
jacking around the majority for the sake of a mini-minority could be
an addendum to my previous blog entry, Majority Rules?) The
law would have been made more inclusive and made federal if it were
to have included incidents like the Abby Bar, a gay establishment in
West Hollywood, which refused admittance to any anti-gay legislators.
It's a shame there wasn’t enough room in the newspaper to print
that story.
The
Arizona law was vetoed, but I'm amazed it was even considered. If
society continues as it is soon we will have a law forbidding
restaurants to discriminate against people with no shirts or no
shoes.
There
was a time when business discriminating against a certain segment of
society was a real problem. Is it really a problem today? Even
without today’s non discrimination laws, what if a tavern down the
street had a “No Blacks Allowed” sign in its window? How long
would it take public pressure and a lack of customers to put that
business out of business? What if a gay bar discriminated against
heterosexuals? Are these really current problems? Are we creating
even more laws today to solve the problems of yesterday?
Its
been said that we have thousands of laws on the book to enforce the
Ten Commandments. For a society to be truly successful and productive
its people must be trusted enough to govern themselves.
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