[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Charles Gust

Our Family Uses Email

     By Charles Gust

     My five siblings and parents have lived in some of the farthest
     corners of this great land. Over the past couple of years, we
     have used email to stay in communication as a family - it's like
     our family dinner table, except that we are all now in totally
     different locations.

     I enjoy having the freedom to communicate with my family without
     fear that I am breaking the law if somebody else feels part of
     our conversation is indecent.

     Democracy is the purest form of one person equals one vote, is
     our only defense against tyranny, and it would be tragic to lose
     it lest we experience the tyranny of other systems such as as one
     dollar equals one vote or one bullet equals one vote.

     I don't like any sort of "send a message" legislation or laws.
     Anytime someone tells me that something will "send a message" to
     criminals, or immigrants, or whoever, I always have to ask "what
     rights is this taking away?" Is it taking away the right to speak
     freely?

     When a law is too broad, our rights our abridged - our democracy
     is challenged. We tell ourselves "Oh, the courts will overturn it
     anyway", but at what expense? We tell ourselves "Oh, they'd never
     enforce it in this situation", but that's given the choice of
     enforcement to someone else, and is not freedom.

     The other tragedy is when laws contain both what is good and
     just, and also what is not. The decision becomes warped to "is
     there more good than bad created by this law?", when instead a
     law should only contain what is good and just, and not contain
     what is bad.

     Charles Gust (This all came off the top of my head - just what I
     was feeling)

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