I had a specific direction I wanted to go to when I started this thread, but we didn't make it there before the thread died. For those who participated, thank you.
Keep it going- sowing seeds reaps rewards.
If you're right, I'm going to say something that has needed to be said for the benefit of all sides of this issue. Let's hope someone reads this.
"
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence)
I'm always bolding words that I want people to pay more attention to than the rest of a sentence or paragraph. In this instance America was founded on the presupposition that your Creator (your God, whomever you deem that to be) bestowed upon you, at birth, Rights which are above the reach of man. If you don't believe in God, those Rights have also been called natural, inherent,
absolute, irrevocable,
unalienable, etc. Bottom line, that was the presupposition.
Although we do not acknowledge those
unalienable Rights today, Thomas Jefferson said that the Declaration of Independence is the
Declaratory Charter of the Rights of Man.
The people on both sides of the political aisle seek to
control their fellow man. For example, on the right those people think that the only way someone should enter the United States is via some "legal" process and that Rights only apply if you are a
"legal" citizen. So, one of the foundational principles of our Declaratory Charter says all men are created equal, but the right says that we must adhere to some arbitrary quota as to how many come in as guests. So, the foreigner is not really entitled to Liberty and some employers are discriminated against since the quota system does not allow employers to pick who they hire. Then people suddenly become "
criminals" because they dare to exercise the
unalienable Right of Liberty.
Then there are all those objections that people are flooding our country; cheap labor drives down wages; they didn't come here
"legally." Reality check: foreigners come here because Americans
willingly hire them, rent to them, buy from them and otherwise do business with them. It's the free enterprise system at work. Before you judge me, let's visit the other side of the aisle.
The left seeks
control over your life. They want the government in charge of your health (socialized healthcare) and some on the left want guaranteed wages (a guaranteed income.) They want to take away your ability to protect yourself so they advocate for gun
control. The left likes to
control the words you say and how you publicly express yourself.
There is a commonality to this other than the evil of
control. What happens in society is a result of our culture and our behavior. In one part of America firearms are outlawed, but they have a high crime rate. In another part of America there is enough firearms for every household in that area and those places are among the safest on earth. That is a reflection of the values and culture of a given area. The right conflates Liberty with citizenship; the left despises
unalienable Rights because government has no
control.
My point is that you cannot build a government big enough to save you from yourself. If you don't want drug dealers in America, then you have to treat drugs the way society treats white racists. There is ZERO toleration for them across the board, whether in government or in the private sector. If you don't want foreigners in your town, don't hire them. Don't rent to them and don't do business with companies that do cater to them. Rather than lock them out, petition the government to abolish anti-discriminatory laws and allow you to hire who you do want to work for you.
If you don't like the rates of violence in America, get to the root of the problem. Quit blaming inanimate objects and admit the truth. The rate of violence is a reflection of our culture, not the tools by which are used. That should be evident by the fact that one geographical area outlaws firearms and has a high rate of violence and a gun friendly community has a lower than average rate of violence. We have to overcome this obsession with wanting to
control the lives of others. If we continue to ignore this subject, you will wake up one morning in a totalitarian dictatorship and wonder what went wrong. The problem is in our culture and if we don't change our culture, we're going to destroy Freedom and Liberty.
