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1996-03-11
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[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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[Twenty-Four Hours of Democracy]