Read an outstanding article today on Yolo about America becoming a nation of Control Freaks. 
Its a scary piece that should be something from an Orwell novel, but instead has sadly become reality.
We have become a nation of “not in my backyards” where we legislate against everything to the point of absolute silliness.
Its our own damn fault too. We either don’t vote, or we let the fringes of our society do all the voting and we end up with the mess we have now – legislatures full of people who have no idea of what centrist thinking is, or how to compromise. When we have everyone stamping their foot and exclaiming loud “NO!s” to anything, then it is no wonder that we are beginning to become mired in our own exclusionary, me first mess.
We have raised several generations of kids who think that their mere presence on the planet entitles them to anything and everything they want, to the exclusion of all others. Me First!
Read the article linked above, or watch the John Stossel video. These inane laws going on our books by the hundreds of thousands are merely a symptom of our infatuation with “me first”.
We’ve taken huge steps to legislate intolerance on a personal basis, but we have moved our intolerance of others to a whole new level by legislation. Don’t like pink houses – there are communities where you can’t paint your house pink. Don’t like young people on the streets having a good time at night – lets create harsh curfew laws. We are so afraid of human behaviour in most forms now that a 15 year old teenage boy who pulls a prank and pees on his buddies tires can be hauled in by the ears and made to register as a sex offender.
We did this to ourselves, and I’m afraid that it is way to late to undo it. People tend to be amazingly like a herd of cows or buffalos. Get a whole bunch of them together in one place, and most of them have no clue what is going on in front of them, they just follow. Good or bad, right off the cliff – because it’s what everybody else is doing.
On a large social scale, why does it matter if two guys or two girls get married. How does that hurt anyone? Why does it hurt me if someone defaces a milk carton if I’m a resident of Massachusetts? Why can’t cars be sold in Denver on Sunday’s? Why do we have to legislate whether or not a certain type of alcohol can or can’t be sold on certain days or in certain places.
Laws should be simple, easy to remember and as few of them as possible. We all need to grab a phone or pencil and contact our nearest legislator and insist they start behaving responsibly. Won’t ever happen, but it’s a nice thought.
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