Article Contributed on: 2/14/2009 8:12:09 AM
"Common sense is not against the law." - Washington State Supreme Court decision, circa
1960.
Marie Morrow of Cherokee Trail High School got a
valuable civics lesson recently: she found out what it was like to live in a police state where common sense
is against the law.
Ms Morrow came to school with wooden mock rifles for her drill team in the back of her car. They were reported to school administrators, who duly expelled her in line with a draconian law passed by the panicky sissies of the Colorado Assembly to "protect" our children.
Over the past few decades, fear-mongering in American and Colorado law has become an art form for unscrupulous politicians. The War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and Zero Tolerance are the masterpieces of this transformation of our nation from a democracy to a police state.
In a police state, you can't win. The laws are designed to make sure that you are always in the wrong so that you can always be called to account under the color of law.
American law wasn't always like that: it's an innovation that began in the Reagan era. It touches every corner of the law, even the traffic laws. In Colorado, it's against the law to speed, and it's against the law to obey the speeding laws if you're in the left lane on a three-lane freeway. You can be pulled over no matter what speed are driving, at the officer's discretion. How marvellous.
By a bi-partisan consensus, Common sense is against the law. Your only recourse is to abandon the Dems and Repubs and next time
vote Libertarian.