A very long post about government and stuff* Weighing in on Ferguson. I think its highly unlikely that the officer who killed Michael Brown killed him because he was black, and I dont even think thats the issue that people are upset about anymore. It has less to do with race and more to do with the internal resistance that every person has to their rights being suppressed by force. Every American has a natural desire for control. We crave the ability to make our own free choices because, thankfully, weve lived in a country founded on principles of freedom. Our founding document is primarily based on the negative rights that restrict the government from demanding conformation into a particular mold, thus were secured our freedom to pursue happiness in whichever way we deem best. The government cannot tell us what to worship, what to say, what were allowed to do on our own property, etc. This was the climate that created the most prosperous nation the world had ever seen. But recently weve seen those negative rights being considered less important and instead heard clamoring for more positive rights. Weve seen an increase in demanding the government give us more health care, more education, more security etc. Those positive rights, unfortunately, come at a high cost because in order to attain them, the government invariably ends up disregarding some of the negative rights the nation was founded upon. The most obvious example would be the negative right to bear arms, which the government insists it must do in order to give us the positive right to safety and security. The ironic aspect of this is that the more reliant you and become on demanding and receiving positive rights from our government (and the more we will see our negative rights disappear) the more frustrated we will become by government intrusion into our lives. You see this in particular in places like the DMV where frustration boils over as we are individually giving over so much of our own control in order to have the government supply us with the positive right of safe vehicle travel. And the frustration is not simply on the part of us the governed, but it boils over into the government employees as well. Frustration and anger only breeds more frustration and anger. Everyone hates this, and yet demands it at the same time. So it is with police. We love police. We love having safe streets, safe neighborhoods, safe parks. We love being able to call someone when we are in need and feel like they are going to com to our aid quickly. But when they intrude upon our rights, when we see their lights flashing in our rear-view mirror, we hate them, we fear them, we wish theyd stick to catching bank robbers not harassing us for being 10 miles over the speed limit. This is the irony and the painful line that must be walked in order to maintain a prosperous nation. Yet we are in a dangerous time in our nations history. We keep putting more and more emphasis on those positive rights and less and lesson the negative rights. This means we are giving up more control and creating more frustration for all involved. The only way out of this spiral is the demand less positive rights and be OK with the freedom that comes from the more negative rights. However, in order to do this, it will mean having to go without certain things that we think we *need*. Security, Health Care and Education are all wonderful things, but if we demand the government give them to us, we will feel the frustration that comes with it. If we can instead demand the government not give us these things but rather permit us the freedom to gain our own, we will find ourselves once again a less stifled, more robust, more prosperous nation. What does this mean in terms of Michael Brown? Well in the one sense it means that we uphold justice, no matter what. But it another sense it means that a community must take action for itself. We cannot demand government assistance and then react negatively when the government does what it does. A local communities police force is supposed to be run by that local community. Thats why its important that local law enforcement has separate powers (police chief/sheriff/DA etc.) that are attained by elections. This allows the people to have a voice, a strong voice. I am unaware of all the circumstances in Ferguson and how the local law enforcement was made up, but I do know this, that you and I should take a very somber look at our own local law enforcement and decide if we like what we see. What are the emphasizing/cracking down on? What are they lenient on? What are they spending their budget on. Do you really think that your local law enforcement needs armored vehicles, assault rifles, and grenade launchers? Why do you think they need these things? How do you anticipate they will use them? Pray for, love and serve the members of your local law enforcement community, but also make careful consideration as to what they are doing, because just like every other part of society, power can be corrupting if not kept in check.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:21:02 +0000
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