Answering to God, Not the Government

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

“http://www.freestateproject.org”>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?