Politics in the real world

While I was hanging out with a few of my fellow firefighters yesterday, we started talking about the upcoming presidential election. Never before has a conversation gotten so heated between the group of us. The funny thing is, we all agreed with each other. It just amazes me how many people are willing to give up their civil liberties for what they think is safety or a good cause.

Take gun laws for example. Anti-gun lobbyists are always trying to make it harder to buy hand guns. Why? A criminal generally does not care where they buy their gun. Legal or not they are going to get some sort of firearm to commit their crime. So why should I have to get a permit and go through a waiting period? It is just another way to discourage legal gun owners from buying new guns and give the criminal the upper hand. Crime is a big business, you would be a fool to think the government wants to stop crime. There is way too much money to be made from crime.

Drugs, well we all know that is a joke. More than two-thirds of the politicians abuse drugs. They don't want to get rid of them.

Take a simple issue such as playground equipment at your local grade school. How many swing sets, slides and monkey bars have been removed because of so called safety issues? So now when you watch the news, you hear about our children becoming fat! For God's sakes let them play. Remember when kids grew up tough? Now they grow up wanting to talk about their feelings and how something makes them feel. Lawsuits have taken their playground equipment away and replaced it with a mandatory school counseling session.

Smoking is becoming such a hot issue, it is getting banned everywhere. If someone wants to kill theirself, let them. Why is it the job of the elected to protect us from choices that might not be so good? It is my decision whether I want to smoke or not. But the local and federal politicians and special interest groups have more of a say in my life than I do. That is just straight up wrong.

Our elected officials are by far causing more harm than good. Every law passed is a freedom we will never get back and we keep letting them do it. Why? I guess common sense isn't so common after all. With every lawsuit that gets won, it is just one step closer to us litigating our ever last freedom away. I guess I should file a lawsuit against the government the next time they take a freedom away from me but you can't fight Capitol Hill, can you?