Frontiers
What do you believe in? Choice, life, gay rights, a ban on gay marriage, war on terror, war on drugs, gods, God, individual rights, laws to protect the common good, privacy, that chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla?
Since about five people actually read this site, the answers may not be as spread out as I am trying to demonstrate – but I think you get the point: people have different beliefs. Are yours better than mine? Even things that some consider fundamental truths are conflicted, let alone something as simple as ice cream flavor. I’ve realized something in recent years – people are different.
End of story; what I believe is different than what you believe. Is this a hard concept to comprehend – especially if you are in a position of power?
The U.S. was founded on a principle of differences. Do you think state lines were drawn just so we could have 50 different quarters to collect? No. Lines were drawn because the people on one side of the river believed in something different than the people on the other side of the river. This still exists today in the form of tax rates, gun control laws and whether or not Wegman’s is allowed to sell beer. The problem is, there are less and less of these differences being supported.
So, what happened? Someone started saying “sure, you can let your drinking age be 18 – but not if you want this federal highway grant”. Suddenly every state has a drinking age of 21. Worse than that, laws get passed at the federal level that override the state’s decision. (For those of you that didn’t realize, the National Do Not Call list actually reduced the restrictions that some states had on unsolicited calls – way to go!)
I want a frontier. Manifest destiny is catching up on me, and I have no way to get my fix of freedom. A few hundred years ago, if I didn’t like the laws of the land, I could just move farther out and set up an area with other people who had similar views. Hell, the state of Utah pretty much exists because some guy had a vision in the forest that said “Thou shalt not drink coffee” (pardon my historical exaggerations). Where can I go now when our leaders take away the freedoms that I desire and strike down the believes I hold true?
There is really only one frontier left – space – and I fear that the ability to take advantage of that may have missed me by one or two generations. I will continue to hope though. Perhaps the likes of Burt Rutan will move things along quicker than expected. Or maybe, at some point, our nation or some other nation will wake up and realize that everyone does not have to be the same, that there are too many laws and in many ways people need to be more free than we allow.
’till then, I will continue to dream – and hum the theme song to Firefly.
Inspiration for this article taken from: The Failure of the American Experiment – Kuro5hin.