The Digital Dad

Civil liberties are something we often take for granted. Speech, expression, the right to gather publicly. We live in a country where the constitution guarantees everyone those and many other basic rights. But what if all that changed? There are multitudes around the globe living today under oppressive rule where some or all of those rights can be taken away on a whim, if they ever existed at all. In a post-9/11 world, fear has many times proved strong enough to sway governments, even our own, into acts that many consider oppressive.

Richard Jackson, in a book published by Benjamin Franklin, wrote, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” What would you do if your basic civil liberties were revoked in the name of public safety? How would you respond to a government of oppression? How important are your freedoms? Would you risk imprisonment or even death to fight for all of our freedom? Would you break Curfew?

So the “Keep it out of Murray” group is now circulating a petition to repeal ALL alcohol sales in Murray, INCLUDING existing restaurant sales. This is getting ridiculous. If you’re against alcohol consumption, don’t drink it and don’t frequent venues that provide it. Attempting to revoke the rights of others to purchase alcohol is, in my opinion, petty and unjust. If you have moral or religious beliefs that you feel obligate you to fight against alcohol, then be a positive witness for your cause and beliefs. Present yourself and your opinion with dignity and allow those to whom you witness to decide for themselves what course to follow. Repealing alcohol sales because your church and your faith oppose it is, in my opinion, equivalent to a good old fashioned book-burning. “We think these books present dangerous ideas and instead of allowing our citizens to determine for themselves whether those ideas are harmful, we as a community opt to remove them from our glorious and faithful commune.” Before travelling too far down this particular road, I recommend some people review “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” by Mark Twain. Or heck, Footloose was on TBS last night. And we all love Kevin Bacon. Mmm, Bacon. At any rate, until this whole matter is settled I’ll see you all at the Apple on Saturday night and at church on Sunday morning.

It’s Christmas Day for Eastern Orthodox Christians, and thousands of them may die tonight.

I’m linking below to a story from USA Today that you may not be aware of. Because of a pricing dispute between Russia and Ukraine, Russia today ceased all heating fuel deliveries to Ukraine and, by proxy, all additional countries Ukraine supplies. Countries such as Bosnia and Serbia have no additional pipelines to other fuel providers and as a result 4 million people are without heat today. With temperatures already below freezing during the daytime, there is no way to know how many will survive the night. In a frenzy, many affected peoples drove upwards of 100 miles today in hopes of buying an electric heater, but store supplies were rapidly exhausted. A Bosnian woman perhaps put it best when she asked, “Is this the 21st century? How can someone leave me without heating in minus 10 degrees (Celsius) because of a dispute I have nothing to do with?”

So say an extra prayer for those poor souls with no heat, and for a swift end to this deadly dispute.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-01-07-russia-gas-europe_N.htm?csp=34