Answering to God, Not the Government

OPINION
Answering to God, Not the Government

by Shannon Baldwin • 10/07/03

Have you heard about the latest from those crazy "free-staters"? They made the news last week when their members (over 5,000) voted to make New Hampshire their eventual destination when they reach a membership of 20,000.

If you don't know what I am talking about, check out those "libbies'" (that's a cross between libertarian and yuppie) Web site at www.freestateproject.org.

It's so kooky! According to their site, the Free State Project (FSP) espouses beliefs in the "benefits of robust individual liberty and the failings of the nanny state...the debilitating effects of a government bent on reducing liberty rather than increasing it," and that with enough activists moving to a single state, liberty can be attained. The FSP is not a political organization, and only asks that its member's core belief be that "government's maximal role should be to defend individuals from force and fraud" -leaving individuals to be free to choose for themselves their own life providing it does not harm others.

What are they talking about? Don't they know that America is a free country?

You are free to marry whomever you want! Just ask Marilyn Musgrave. She is a huge supporter of individual liberties over government control.

You are free to use your land for whatever you chose -unless you want to use it growing marijuana. Somehow, the federal government regulating commerce through telling Mary Mary quite contrary how her garden must grow is an acceptable use of power.

Oh and if Mary Mary wants to smoke her home-grown herbs, then that is also not a sanctioned freedom. The government has the right to regulate these sorts of things for our own health. It is the government's right, because I am sure that I am way too feeble-minded, were I left alone to make my own choice about the matter. Thank God someone is here to do the thinking for me.

Just like the government did in 1919 with the passing of Amendment 18. Not only was America freed from the vice of alcohol, but the streets were so much safer because we were free of all those drunks wandering about breaking the peace. Ask Al Capone.

There has even been a great example of this American freedom right here in Fort Collins with the advent of the smoking ban. I am so glad that individual business owners got to choose for themselves about the atmosphere of their establishments -because I know that as a patron, I could never simply choose not to go if I felt that atmosphere was unhealthy.

There are over 2 million inmates in the prison system today and I am sure that only a miniscule fraction of those serving and money spent prosecuting are for so-called victimless crimes. So what is the big fuss about? It's not like "real" criminals serve shorter sentences because of the over-crowded inmate population - is it?

And SPR (Stop Prisoner Rape) has found that many victims of this in-house crime are non-violent offenders and, when released, "may engage in violent, antisocial behavior and the aggressive assertion of their masculinity, including the commission of rape on others" (www.spr.org). But it should serve those non-violent prisoners right for breaking the government-imposed morality laws.

As long as I follow the government rules then what do I care? I can live as free as I want within my safe little regulated box. For my own good.

So let those "libbies" just try their move to New Hampshire to instigate a state of liberty if they can. Those sillies are probably just a bunch of fringe cult fanatics, anarchists and Internet geeks, anyway. Never-mind that most are in their 20s and 30s, half of them having university degrees -18 percent possessing doctorate's -and many owning small businesses.

What could they know about freedom?

More media articles about the FSP

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