Freedom shouldn’t be used to disparage others, twist facts

Editor:

Here in the United States some of us have a rich tradition of doing whatever we can get away with. One of our senior gas customers told us that traffic was backed up for twenty miles in Florida at 5 p.m. on election day 1996. According to her, it was all about making it more difficult for working people to vote, regardless of color.

Mr. Trump, a hero to some, has made it quite the rage again to act on our impulses. January 6th and what he told Billy Bush before his electoral college victory in 2016 were just the tip of the iceberg.

Not paying your taxes or, for that matter, those who build your casinos is consistent with getting away with whatever you can. Sometimes all you need is nerve and a fancy lawyer.

Perhaps if we make a big enough commotion about how we are free people we can ignore election outcomes, do what we like to those who may believe they do not have a voice, discount climate change and resist any further responsibility to our fellow citizens to get vaccinated and wear masks.

No, the enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution should not be taken to deny or disparage others. But neither does the Ninth Amendment give us license to do whatever we please, even if some of us would apparently like to think it does.

Heck, if our freedom loving ancestors had been encouraged by “leaders” such as some of those we have lurking around today, they might have resisted the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. What did our sixteenth President know anyway?

Demagogues such as Mr. Trump, Senator Cruz, Governor De Santis and others seem to believe living free is synonymous with doing whatever you like without regard for the consequences to others.

Why not let it devolve into every man for himself? Doesn’t it make sense that our relationships with our fellow humans should be so misguided? Hopefully no one reading this believes such nonsense has a happy ending.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent

Albion