orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (03/05/86)
David Olson writes: > I don't know of anything about people that is not controlled by government > to one extent or another. > > It controls what we eat and drink and the medications we take. > Through licensing, it controls the professions we can employ. > It tells us what we can do for a living and how much money we can > make and what we can do with that money. > It controls our education, communication, and transportation. > > The only things we can *legally* "choose" are those things that have > already been preapproved for us by some government agency. > > Sound paranoid? Then, name me one thing in your life that doesn't > involve government somewhere. I freely chose my major and courses in college - no government agency told me what major I had to take. Admittedly the government provides subsidies to those who opt for the military - but ROTC students are not forced to join. Despite this freedom to go to school to learn whatever subject interested me or which I personally thought valuable in some way, the government *helped* me to get an education through student loans and scholarships. Was this "control"? In what sense? I joined with friends to start our own housepainting cooperative. We didn't have to get approval from any government agency to begin our own business, nor did the government tell us anything about how we should run it. We did have to pay taxes like any other employed American. But paying taxes exerted absolutely no "control" over how we ran our business. Again, where is the "control"? On the other hand to get to houses to paint we traveled on government maintained roads. Was this government "control" of our business? I do not see how. Certainly this means, yes, the government was involved somewhere. So what? In this sense anyone who travels anywhere, who mails a letter or bills, who ever went to public school, who hires employees educated at public schools in some way has benefitted or been involved with government. So what? Does that mean that some government agency tells me where I can travel on government highways, what letters I can write, what causes I can send checks to through the mail, what books I can read with the literacy I have been provided with government sponsored education? Not in this country, not yet. The group which most wants to curtail such liberties is the extreme right-wing of Falwell, Helms, Reagan et al. Meese just suggested that all government employees be subjected to blanket drug testing. The fundamentalists have removed Playboy from the list of magazines translated into braille for the blind despite the fact that it is one of the most popular magazines in braille and has been chosen by the board of the blind themselves as one of their choices. Reagan has already begun cutting student loans to those who resist draft registration. He also proposed allowing government agencies to exchange their information on individuals but was successfully opposed by Congress because this would involve unwarranted snooping. FBI agents are at this very moment snooping in Churches to try to repress the Sanctuary Movement. Our tradition has been for government to provide *opportunities* which people could then use in any way they wished. The fundamentalists don't believe in such freedoms to be sinner or saint as you choose. They wish to impose their view of what is "right" on everyone and not allow them the opportunity of alternatives, whether they be reading "Catcher in the Rye" in public libraries, or choosing to translate Playboy into braille. I have faith Americans will oppose such repression - but it will take effort. tim sevener whuxn!orb
gdf@mtuxn.UUCP (G.FERRAIOLO) (03/06/86)
Why should people who are violating the law get government money? What's the matter, sauce for Bob Jones University isn't sauce for violators of draft laws? (Except that BJU wasn't actually violating any laws that I know of, even if their policies are wrong). Or is it that you don't like BJU and do like draft-dodgers? (By the way, I dislike both and will not support either with my PERSONAL funds). Guy