It’s a simple question that we should ask ourselves – possibly ask ourselves frequently. It is, essentially, the basis of our legal system. I am less offended by an apple core thrown from a car window than a bottle or a can. I am much less offended by the mojado who works on a southwestern ranch than the refugee who gets behind the wheel of a truck and injures or kills someone. Like it or not, our willingness to accept or impose government controls is a matter of degree.
I remember searching for a little boy named Ryan. I remember when the search changed to recovery – we hadn’t found Ryan, but a murderous pedophile had been turned in. I read that Robert Hornback, Ryan’s pedophile murderer, may be trying for parole in another couple-three years, and was shocked to hear he had been housed in South Dakota’s prison under the name Sebastian Canon. By the time this next parole hearing comes around Ryan will have been dead since 1987. Forty years is plenty of time for a person to change. But I strongly oppose any parole for Hornback. I think it is right to impose my views on a murdering pedophile.
I think of myself as politically libertarian – but I am downright Authoritarian (call it statist, if you will) when it comes to murderous pedophiles. I suspect none of us are 100% libertarian or 100% Statist. It’s the big reason I don’t like dividing ideologies on a scale of right versus left. From my perspective, the Nazis (National Socialists) weren’t all that different from Stalin’s Communists (International Socialists). Both were extreme Statists – and my nation allied with one group of Statists to put paid to the group that was a little more horrible. Stalin was considered on the left, Hitler the right. There was little difference between them.
I’ve looked at the protests against ICE – and on one hand, when I see the ICE people explaining that they’re catching the worst of the worst, I recall the sinking feeling of knowing we were looking for the body of a little boy. On the other hand, as we talk about illegals, I recall men who worked on southwest ranches to make a better living for their families in Mexico. Men who would have felt the same as I had they been there on that summer day in Libby.
I don’t have even that level of certainty on our drug laws. I do recall that Harry Anslinger (headed the Federal Bureau of Narcotics) made sure that Senator Joseph McCarthy had no problems getting his prescription for morphine filled in DC. And I wonder if there aren’t cheaper, more effective, more humane options available. As I age, I’m a bit more understanding of having a definite speed limit than I was back when Nixon pushed through the double nickel and took away our ‘reasonable and prudent.”
Thinking on the topic, it’s wrong to impose my views on religion to others – or others views on religion on me. I’m kind of strong on the Bill of Rights – a long time ago, I took an oath to protect the constitution of the United States. I accept that oath included the entire document and did not have an expiration date. When I look at the laws passed since then, I think we maybe have too many.
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