Are There Reasons for Hope?

Column for week of April 6, 2015

     A look back over the years can be quite depressing. 
Liberty has been trampled as long as I can remember.  Even a
cursory glance at history reveals the stomping was in full swing
before I arrived.  People in the USA are far less free than when
I was born.

     Liberty has gained ground in a few small corners.  It is
no longer illegal to sell yellow margarine, or to sell milk in
gallon jugs.  On the other hand, it is now illegal to sell raw
milk in any container.

     The law making it illegal to own gold fell by the
wayside.  That repeal came at a high price.  Our money is no
longer backed by gold.  It is merely ink splashed on paper by
the government.  That is why a dollar is now worth about what
a nickel was worth when I was born.

     Before World War II about 5 percent of workers needed
government permission to pursue their work.  Now 30 percent
have to jump through government hoops and get licenses to
work.  This has little to do with health and safety, and
everything to do with protecting established service providers
from competition.  How many people have died from bad
interior design, poorly arranged flowers, or bad hair braiding?

     Government controls the size, shape, color and location
of your house, as well as how far your cupboards are above the
floor.  It also controls what you plant or don't plant in your
yard.  A Michigan man was jailed for not planting grass.  An
elderly woman was cited for planting herbs instead of grass.

     I have watched government ride roughshod over us for
decades.  When I spoke out most people's eyes glazed over.  If
it didn't affect them personally, they didn't care.  If it did affect
then, they learned to live with it.  I doubted that the sheep
would wake up until they were in the slaughterhouse.

     I now see some signs of people rattling their chains. 
Civil asset forfeiture went big time in the 1960s.  A cop or
prosecutor would claim property was somehow involved in a
crime.  Government seized the money, house, car, whatever
without warning, or any kind of court hearing.

     The cops keep the property, unless the owner proves the
property innocent.  Sometimes the owner has to post bond for
the privilege of trying to reclaim his property.  Try posting
bond or hiring an attorney when everything you own has been
taken from you.  This is nothing more than legal theft.  In 80
percent of the cases the owner isn't even charged with a crime.

     Finally civil asset forfeiture is on the radar.  Politicians
are talking about the abuse.  Two states outlawed it.  Even the
national government has tweaked it down a bit.  Politicians are
followers, not leaders.  If they see votes to be had by reining in
civil asset forfeiture they will do it.

     Government kills people wholesale by denying them
access to medical treatment that hasn't endured years,
commonly a decade or more, of testing.  This wanton killing is
outrageous.  Until recently few seemed to care.  Some states
are now considering laws to restore some of the right for
individuals to have the treatment they chose.  There is a bill in
Congress to back down national restrictions on the access to
new treatments.

     Even those who hate marijuana should be thrilled that
marijuana prohibition is staggering on its last legs.  We all pay
the price of prohibition with little or no benefit.  Drug use rolls
on.  Criminals grow rich.  The police are distracted and
corrupted.  Perfectly good employees are fired and perhaps sent
to jail.  Families are broken and welfare rolls expanded.  Those
who profit from the war on drugs would block the ending of
prohibition if it weren't for the ever growing pressure from the
people.

     Perhaps people are finally fed up enough to stand up for
the liberty to control their own lives.  Perhaps there is some
reason for hope.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum