One Step Closer…

Picture the scene.

It’s Friday evening, I just got home from a long week at work and I’m sitting on my couch with my feet up, reading the daily paper. I had already glanced through the headlines earlier and read the ‘big’ news items. Reality Catches Up With Spitzer, Sacrifice to Afghanistan Extended til 2011 and Tragic Explosion at Local Car Dealership, when I come across 4 column inches on page A5.

It seems that another province has decided to try and sue Big Tobacco, this time in the name of “people whose health has been harmed by tobacco products, families who have lost loved ones to tobacco-related illness and taxpayers who have borne the added costs to the health-care system.”(bold mine)

This last part is what frightens me. It sets a precedent that the government can go back to the producers of goods and hold them responsible for the health care costs of willing, non-coerced consumers who used their products. Who is next? Keith’s & Captain Morgan? Coke & Pepsi? Mr. Christie and my Mom?

There is another level to this government meddling. It sets the framework to follow in Britain’s footsteps down the road of heath care rationing. If individual citizens are defying the government decrees that certain acts and products could be harmful to their health, then they get no ‘free’ treatment of their health issues.

That is bad enough, but lets take this a step further.

The government has proof that you have made poor health choices. Say during some routine blood-work your blood was tested, without your knowledge, for nicotine and trans-fats, and the results were positive. The next week you get a registered letter from the ‘Ministry of Health’ with an itemized bill for health care procedures they say you needed due to your poor choices. At the bottom of the bill it says if you don’t pay in 30 days the government will sue you for the costs, in the name of your neighbors who paid for the procedures.

I know it sounds far fetched right now, but with the rising costs of health care in this province, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nova Scotia jumping on this bandwagon shortly. And then it is a slippery slope down to a socialist democracy, where individual rights are only upheld if they have no real or perceived negative impact on society.

Letter to the Editor Oct 20, 2007

I can’t stand hearing people whining about the government not taking care of them well enough.

Every time I read a paper or watch the news there is a socialist agenda being promoted.

Throw away soldiers lives and billions of dollars into a desert half the world away in the name of democracy building.

Take away Nurses right to strike and make them slaves to the sick.

Give more money to the “needy” and make them more dependant on Big Mother.

Dump more money into schools and continue indoctrinating rather than educating.

Steal people’s land to widen a road that everyone pays for and a small percentage use.

Ban smoking in private cars when children are present to “save” them from their uncaring parents.

We need to open our eyes here and see that very soon government regulations will invade even further into our private lives. Next we will see legislation permitting only licensed, non-smoking, non-drinking couples to have children.

We need a shake up. A person or group to stand up to the government and take back our rights. A political party founded on the unalienable rights of an individual to decide what is best for themselves and the idea that the government’s only job is to safeguard the power of force in society.

No right to live?

This is a letter to the editor I wrote Thursday, Apr 26, 2007

I have come to the conclusion that Kenneth Taylor should adopt a diet and lifestyle strictly adhering to his principle that he does not “have the right to kill any living creature of any species for whatever reason.”

I will, however, miss reading his asinine moral pronunciations after he succumbs to self-inflicted starvation. After all, plants are living creatures too.

The ability to come to any conclusion after questioning a theory and thinking rationally is what makes humans special. As individual rational animals, our own individual lives should be most important, not the life of every rodent, insect and vegetable.

What Kenneth has concluded is not that we have “No right to kill”, but that we have no right to live.

I emphatically disagree.

* I wrote that as a letter to the editor in response to this letter;

No right to kill

After much thought, I came to the conclusion that I must Adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle to the best of my ability. As a human, I do not believe I have the right to kill a living creature of any species for whatever reason.
What is so special about humans that gives us an attitude of superiority and domination over other species? I concluded that other species are equally important as us humans.
They are entitled to life, kindness and respect – as are we humans.
Kenneth Taylor
Halifax

Letter to the Editor April 3rd 2007

David Rhodenhiser is so close to naming the problem and hence the solution.

It’s not a lack of civic pride that is the problem.

It is a lack of accountability for an individuals actions and expressions.

From all sides we are bombarded with the message not to judge people:

• Multiculturalism teaches that all cultures and their ideas about life are equal.
• Christianity teaches to ‘love the sinner and not the sin’, as if the two are somehow mutually exclusive.
• The public school system teaches that you don’t have to be able to do the work to pass a grade.
• The prevailing social theory dictates that the criminals are a product of their environment and cannot be held accountable for their actions.
• The government teaches that you don’t have to be responsible for up your life, if you need welfare, health care, education or any number of other ‘essentials’ they will give it to you and make someone else pay.

This all filters down to people, young people in particular, not feeling any need to make responsible choices. Why would they when there is someone there to pick up their slack and fix their mistakes.

The solution is not just to “stand up and say what behaviour is unacceptable… again and again…”

The solution is a philosophical shift that will take generations to achieve. Politicians, parents, business leaders, educators and journalists need to start holding themselves and others accountable for their actions.

The article I am responding to :
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=20626&sc=157