How do we have both? Theoretically, one persons liberties and rights CAN affect someone else's liberties and rights... that's where the trouble starts. I'll give you an example. There is a program called Free2Choose that explores conflicting rights and freedoms. I saw this program when visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and I can honestly say that until I saw that program, the thoughts behind it had seriously not occurred to me at that level. Let me explain.
Free2Choose addresses those rights that are afforded people of the world; right to privacy, freedom of religion, freedom of speech. But what happens when those rights and freedoms cannot co-exist. A perfect example is the Westboro Church people. They do things I consider awful. Picketing funerals? Really? Carrying signs that say nasty things about dead people? I find it abhorrent, but they have the right to do this under the laws allowing freedom of speech. But while I can dislike them and their actions, I honestly cannot say they don't have the right to do that because if we take their rights, what does that say about ours? This was the gist of the Free2Choose project. When I was there, it was set up in a large room with videos playing on the walls. A question would pop up, like "Do you believe that people have the right to protest?" (I'm just making this up because I don't remember the specific questions). then people in the room could use a voting apparatus to vote and the scores would show up on the screen; percentage of those that voted yes and no who were in the room and percentages of all who had ever voted. That in itself was interesting, but then they would show a video that made you really think. For example, on this one, they might have a video of Nazi's in a parade carrying signs with hate speech. Wow. Yeah, people have the right to protest and to march, but you don't think about it in this way until there it is.
I just want to show why this is such a difficult topic and why I can understand how the government can find it so difficult to protect freedom and rights for everyone, because one person's freedom may hurt another... even if that hurt is only emotionally. But, if I am true to myself, even though I hate the haters, as long as they are not PHYSICALLY hurting others/other living things, I have to say that we all do have the same rights. This is why Westboro, assholes that they are, get to continue spewing hate.
Okay, all of that to say that my stand on personal liberties and freedoms and rights is one of the government should protect them for each person providing that the allowance of that freedom does not cause the physical harm to other living humans or animals... sorry, I'm not going with flora. I'm going a step further and adding property damage to that. Clearly you have to include that because if someone thinks they need to burn buildings down and only burns empty buildings, then it would fall outside of the first piece, so you have to include property. Of course, that throws us completely into the whole abortion issue, because now we have to consider that an abortion physically harms the embryo or fetus. But, this is MY perfect world and in my world, I don't consider that to be true until the fetus is developed into a person enough that they could live outside of the mother's body. It's okay to disagree... we're exploring my beliefs here, not yours.
So, with this background, I am weighing in on the following social issues as follows:
- I support basic human rights, freedom of speech, religion, beliefs, privacy, to move freely for all people regardless of nationality, gender, color, etc. etc.
- I support marriage, regardless of gender. Quite frankly, I also support polygamous marriages even though I think it is bizarro.
- I support a women's right to have an abortion until the embryo becomes a viable fetus.
- I support the right to own and use guns as long as they aren't being used on people and on animals only when properly hunting.
- All people have the right to believe in any religion they choose to believe in or not to believe. Protection of those beliefs should not include protecting a belief that leads to hurting others. Because everyone may have different beliefs, religious views should never, under any circumstances, be part of decision making in government as that would invalidate everyone's right to hold their own belief system.
- All citizens of the US should have the right to vote in elections regardless of (which is ridiculous that I'm even having to address this, but yea 2016 election drama) whether they have an ID or any of the other crap that is being made up to keep people from voting. I completely believe that all people should have an ID, however, keeping registered voters from voting is wrong. This not allowing early voting, which I'm assuming works like our absentee ballot process is dumb. I vote absentee always. As a nation, we should want the largest voter participation that we can get. We should never try to limit voting.
- I am for legalization of marijuana. Regulate it. Tax it. Or Don't. Don't really care. The whole thing is retarded. I can get wasted on beer, but I can't smoke weed? That just makes no sense. Harder drugs... I'm fuzzy. I think all of these chemical compounds have seriously dangerous side effects or just effects, so I agree we need to educate and continue to work on stopping the manufacturing of them. But, there needs to be some serious aligning of the laws related to drug offenses compared to laws for other crimes. It amazes me that our prisons can be full of drug dealers, when murderers get off easy... but, that's another topic.
- Here's the hot button, right here. Immigration. I believe that immigration should be allowed and that the same rules to immigrate into the US must be used for all people coming in, whether they come from the Philippines or from Mexico. What I see right now is an abuse of power by the Immigration Department and very different rules for different countries. If we didn't make it so difficult, people wouldn't come illegally. I've also worked with illegal aliens and been exposed to the myth that they come and take our jobs and don't contribute. That is patently false. I was in an industry that used illegal aliens for labor. They were hard workers and willing to do the work. They also use fake Social Security numbers,so they pay into social security and get nothing out of it! When you hired white US citizens, they were lazy and either quit or filed fake worker's comp claims. THAT is a drain on our society, not the people who are coming here because they want to have a good job and a good life. I understand that my beliefs here are unpopular, but if we had a workforce in this country that truly wanted to work hard, they would be doing so. I see people every day who refuse to take jobs because they are "beneath them". Instead they suck our resources dry. I feel like what we really need is a good set of rules and policies for all who want to come here. Require them to work, require them to learn the language, create trial periods, there are a lot of things we can do. But, I think it is important that we also realize that immigration is NOT only from Mexico, yet it is exponentially more difficult for a Mexican to immigrate to the US legally than it is for people from Asian countries. At least, that has been my personal experience in talking to people I know who have done both.
I think that's probably enough for today. It's long winded and wordy, just like I always have been, but it's a start for me.
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