Liberty

If you're in London, England, and you're outside, you're probably on camera. IN America, if you have a few twenty dollar bills in your billfold, a government agent might happen by with a radar gun, point the device out a car window at your house, and count your money.  Since most americans have no cash, much less money, this infringement, while odious, is largely irrelevant.

What you check out from your local public library may be scrutinized by "the government". Your phone calls and email may be inspected by "the government" with little probable cause or due process.  

It may be that we in europe and america have had about enough of this. Western civilization wants protection from terrorism, certainly, but without further erosion of civil liberties. Previous erosion has muddied the waters, and left the landscape barren.

If an american citizen wagers on a football game on television, lights up a marijuana cigarette, and has sex with another adult to whom said citizen isn't married, which sounds like quite an afternoon, said citizen would undoubtedly greatly prefer to not fear government intervention, persecution, or prosecution.

Astute commentators have noted the decline of the sovereignty of the individual citizen in america. The citizen has become a bystander, rather than a participant, in the affairs of government. Any restoration of citizen sovereignty will require concerted action by many concerned citizens.

Whatever happened to the notion that you can't legislate morality? Why, then, don't we stop trying? Similarly, surely there is also a limit to the extent to which we can legislate safety and security.  Possibly, we have passed the limit.

Legislation often springs forth from religious beliefs. Should every religin now extant wither away, and if the moral vacumm left were to be filled with secular, civic moral principles, civilization would be all the healthier.

May the sacred institution of marriage be snatched away from the religious and civic authorities, and be placed entirely in the hands of autonomous citizens! People become friends by choice, independent of everyone else, why shouldn't it be the same with marriage? 

That government governs best which governs least. WE might all be able to agree on that.

Please scroll down for the other articles in today's issue of The Truthless Reconciler! Thanks!