Slavery Through Safety

For a while now I’ve been preaching that we Americans are going to be rather unhappy someday when our chickens come home to roost and we discover that we actually want the freedoms we no longer have. For the most part we simply give them up because it seems like a “logical” thing to do because we’re told it will make people safer or make the country better. To illustrate this point better I’d like to offer you a real-life example and then see if it’s really that much of a stretch of the imagination to think that it could be taken further.

I drive a semi for a living which means that I possess a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). One of the many rules which are different for CDL holders as opposed to people with a normal driver’s license is that there are implied consent laws which give law enforcement the ability to stop you and search you for any reason, or no reason at all. This also applies to drug screening, which means you can be required to perform a drug or alcohol test even if no reasonable suspicion exists.

As I said, the premise for giving up freedom is usually safety. Police NEED to have the power to indiscriminately stop and check semi drivers because our vehicles are so much bigger and could do so much more damage if something happened, right? They NEED to be able to demand a drug or alcohol test at any time so that they can catch anyone who is under the influence since it’s very bad to be drunk or high behind the wheel of an 80,000 lb. vehicle, right? It’s GOOD that most states have checkpoints, called weigh stations, that can randomly pull trucks in to check them for everything from equipment violations to log book violations because it makes us SAFER, right?

Now is it really so hard to imagine the government someday in the near future telling us that those same rules need to apply to ALL drivers, including those who only possess a regular driver’s license and who only drive cars? All it would take is for them to point out that there is a “crisis” on America’s roads. That so many people are hurt and killed each year by drunk drivers and people who are high and people who have unsafe vehicles that we NEED to give the police the power to pull anyone over with or without cause to be able to search them (including random drug or alcohol tests) or their vehicle because it will make America’s roads SAFER. I can guarantee you that if that was proposed today that Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Drunk Driving, and almost every police organization would back and endorse the proposal.

Then let’s take it one step further. Would it really be impossible to imagine someone saying, “There is a lot of unsafe and illegal activity that goes on in private residences and buildings, so the police NEED the power to search people’s homes and businesses indiscriminately with or without cause because it will make America SAFER”?

Freedom is something that is very hard, if not impossible, to regain once it’s been given up. We need to be extremely vigilant to protect our freedoms no matter what, even if it means that people will say that we are not as safe as we could be because the government can’t protect us as well.

I would personally much rather live with my freedoms intact and be less safe than to live without them and rely on the government to protect me.

Oh yeah, and happy May Day to everyone.