Let each one of us resolve right now – today – to make Liberty a big part of who we are and how we act. As citizens of this great country we certainly have many rights that are deprived to many people of other countries. But we also have responsibilities. What are those? To vote, to serve on juries when called upon and also to pay our taxes. (Yes, as a Libertarian I believe taxes are much too high, but that is an issue for a different column.) But we also have a responsibility to “make the system work!” That means, among other things, we should step up as individuals when we see that government or other entities are depriving Liberty either to us or to others who are not able to stand up for themselves. Benjamin Franklin famously said that any people who would compromise a little Liberty for a little more security deserve neither. With today’s threats of terrorism directly resulting in increased government surveillance and intrusion, as well as so-called “Freedom From Speech” zones, these are also the “times that try men’s souls.” How will historians write about how we stood up for the Liberty that is our heritage? The Founders of our Great Country, and our descendents, are counting on us!
Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President
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This past April 8, I “celebrated” my 25th anniversary of having publicly spoken out against our nation’s failed and hopeless policy of Drug Prohibition. But my position at that time was really based only upon pragmatism, not philosophy. At that time while looking back over my own experience as a criminal defense attorney in the Navy, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and a trial court judge for almost nine years, I had concluded that we were simply churning low-level drug offenders through the criminal justice system for no particularly good purpose, but at great expense of time and resources. Furthermore, even when we occasionally arrested, convicted and incarcerated a big-time drug dealer, the same illicit drugs were still plentifully available on the streets in the same neighborhoods within at least a week. Why? Because other dealers simply and rightly saw it as an employment opportunity. In addition, I also had concluded that all of the violence and corruption – and beheadings – in Mexico, for example, had literally nothing to do with drugs, they were all caused by drug money.
In his book No They Can’t – Why Government Fails but Individuals Succeed, John Stossel again poses the question “Could greed be good?” Remember how much criticism Ayn Rand received when she openly wrote and stated that Greed is Good? Well, they are both right. The problem really comes from their choice of words, because they have negative connotations. But both writers are discussing is that when people act (legally) in their own financial self-interest, basically everyone wins. A great explanation of this reality comes from the definitive essay entitled “I, Pencil,” where author Leonard Read explains how so many different people provide us with pencils by harvesting wood, graphite and clay powders for the pencil’s lead, and rubber and metals for erasers, and then transporters, advertisers and merchants all act in their own economic self-interest (i.e. greed) to provide the finished product, even though they do not really work with or even know each other. Thus it should be readily apparent that government is not able to do nearly as good and effective job at supplying goods and services as individuals acting in their own economic self-interest.
On page B3 of the Sunday, March 19, 2017 edition of the Los Angeles Times, there were two stories bemoaning the unaffordability of housing in California. So the lawmakers in Sacramento have been springing into action by proposing more than 130 bills that try to “tackle” the issue. Included in these is a bill that would provide a fund of $100 million of taxpayer money to help build housing for teachers, who otherwise would not be able to afford to live in their school districts. But the only law we really need to employ is the law of supply and demand!
Without question, there are times when some people should/must be deprived of their Liberty due to things like criminal convictions or mental health issues. In what situations and for how long that is to occur are issues for a different day. But when the State does take people into its custody, it has an absolute obligation to do its best to protect every one of them from harm, and to provide them with competent medical care, treatment and services as needed. And, yes, sometimes that means they should receive better treatment than they would receive on their own on the outside. Nevertheless, in the last few decades many jurisdictions in our country have failed to live up to these fundamental obligations.
Back when I was growing up, our family rule was for my sister and I to be home in time for dinner. Otherwise, we were mostly on our own. So we learned to make forts, climb trees, invent games and wrestle with our friends, all the while learning by our experiences to control and reduce risks in whatever we happened to be doing. Yes, sometimes we fell down, but we learned from our missteps to be more careful the next time. In fact, starting with kindergarten, I was walking about a mile to school along a busy street either with others or by myself (I was simply told to be careful and always to cross the busy street with the crossing guard). And through all of these activities, all of us lived to tell about them!
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