What rights can you lose?
I wonder what level of instruction you are willing to take from your governemnt. In other words, what sorts of things should your government be able to tell you what is and is not acceptable? In my view, the number of “things” should be very small — ethical standards like murder, stealing and the like are globally acceptable as items which can be regulated by your government. But personal liberties are under attack by folks who think they know better about what’s “better” for you than you do.
The folks who dictate these things have become very smart over the years. They begin with items which a minority of people partake. If only 5% of the population does “X”, let’s regulate it because the rest of the population won’t care. And then, only 9% of the population does “Y” so that too can be regulated without objection from the majority. The thing that escapes most people is that eventually one of the things “they” want to regulate will be something you want to do. But since you’re in the minority for that item, the rest of the state/country won’t care if the government removes your rights and you’ll be left without a choice but to give up your “thing” or break the law.
I bring this up because I am a business owner (among other things… later though) and it appears that the majority can dictate how I can conduct business because it doesn’t seem to affect them; They think that they should be able to tell me how good or bad something is for me and that that should matter to me or my willing clientele. I’m only speaking of legal items (no narcotics or the like, which is another story I’d like to tackle). Can you guess what my source for concern is? It is the recent anti-smoking campaigns running around the country.
Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. But so is eating too much “Take-Out”, not excersizing, excess alcohol, ignoring your family, generating too much debt, etc. The list can go on and on. Right now the focus is on smoking, or more accurately, the removal of smokers’ rights and the rights of those who service smokers. For some reason people think that it is fair to outlaw, across the board, smoking in bars (and now beaches!?!) in California. Since most people I know do not smoke, the response I get from them is, “Thank goodness. I’m so sick of coming home from a bar and stinking like smoke”. My response has been, “if you don’t like the after effects, don’t go to those bars.” And the most common response is something to the effect of, “why should I not have the ability to go to a bar and assume that I can be safe fro a health perspective?”. My answer is, “what does the bar owner owe you? If someone decides to open a bar, under his/her terms, it isa up to you as to whether or not you want to attend. Why on earth should the bar owner be subject to what you find offensive? What about strip bars? If you find them offensive, you don’t go, correct? If you find a bar which allows for smoking and that is offensive to you, don’t go”.
What people don’t get is, this is just one thing that the majority of folks don’t do and so it is an easy target. But most of us do something that “most people don’t do”. Why on earth should what you think is right be imposed on me or other business owners? At one time I believed that this was a free country. And I don’t want to get into OSHA or completely unsafe/illegal items. What I’m getting at is, something that is legal (for now) has been removed from business owners and the way it is happening is insideous and while it may not happen tomorrow, your rights may be at risk too one day.
In the end, what gives our government or general patrons the right to restrict business owners from providing a place for a legal substance to be consumed? And what right do they have to dictate that it may be dangerous to othersas a rational when those concerned have the ability to avoid the establishment altogether?
I hate this state (California) sometimes. And I understand why folks take extreme measures, when they are oppressed by a government which is supposed to stand against such things. I’m sure our Founding Fathers did not envision such control. But then, the other folks are doing “what’s best for us”, regardless of how bad it is for us, as long as it makes them feel good.
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