By Doc Anderson
Managing Editor
Living in a rural town has changed the way I view social issues.
If an emergency occurs, people living in rural areas cannot always rely on emergency services. When they call 911, the response time can be upwards of 45 minutes.
Oftentimes, these people use 911 as a cleaning service because by the time they arrive, the emergency is over. This got me thinking about freedom and safety.
As citizens of this country, we are imbued with God given unalienable rights. Our government steps in and creatively writes laws to circumvent or negate these rights under the guise of safety or protection.
The government is essentially saying the American people are too dumb and untrustworthy to be left to their own devices. Big daddy government must protect these cherubic little devils. Do we need our government to protect us? Is it worth our freedom to obtain this safety?
I decided to poll my fellow students. I had a pretty good idea how they would respond to the question, “Would you rather be free or safe?”
I am significantly older than the majority of my classmates and I believed I had them figured out. I believed they would uniformly choose safety. I believed them to be weak and unwilling to defend themselves.
Because that’s what this argument boils down to; can you defend yourself or not? To say I was surprised was an understatement. Every single one of the students polled chose freedom. I have never been happier to be wrong in my life.
The torch of freedom still burns hot in the hearts of Gen Z. Freedom must be first when making any law. Every congressman should have to ask themselves, ‘Does this law impede the rights of any group of people?’
If the answer is yes, it must be thrown out. Make no mistake about it, the people in power despise your rights to freedom. They believe things would be more efficient if everyone just submitted. We need only look to Canada to see the effects of too much government provided safety.
The Prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, recently enacted the Emergencies Act, which is the equivalent to martial law. Canada’s overly strict COVID-19 protocols negatively affected the trucking industry.
In response, Trudeau labeled the truckers as “far right extremists and terrorists” and initiated martial law to squash the protest. Under the guise of “safety” the leader of a country used executive force to clear dissenters from the streets.
Individual freedoms have been under attack for a long time. It starts off seemingly innocuous with the seatbelt law. Seat belts save lives, but is it the government’s responsibility to make you wear your seat belt? No, it’s not. Either you wear it, or you die.
That’s the beauty of freedom. The government is greedy and hungry, if they can make you wear a strap while you drive, what else can they make you do?
This pattern of government encroachment is evident throughout history, and it never ends well. In fact, founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those that give up freedom for safety deserve neither.”
I am going to have to agree with Ben on this one.