You Are Not Our Nanny

Each new law attempting to obliterate a behavior simply to satisfy a noisy, persistent group is a nail in the coffin of a once-free people's liberty.

Debbie Summers, Chairman of Lexington County Council, wants to force businesses owners to stop deciding for themselves how to do things at their places of business and adopt her way instead. She doesn't like the way things work now, with people voluntarily deciding whether to go into an establishment that allows smoking or choose one that doesn't allow it.

This won't do. She thinks that she has the moral right (obligation?) to make them do things her way. That's what she gets by gaining political power, the ability to force people to do things her way. It's what a comprehensive smoking ban in restaurants and bars is all about.

On the other hand, Lexington County Council members Billy Derrick, Todd Cullum, Bobby Keisler and Jim Kinard understand the meaning of freedom. They know that business owners are not simply managers of government property. They realize that government has no legitimate right to limit individuals' traditional rights to allow or disallow smoking on their own property. These men didn't cave in simply because loud people shouted that it is best or more convenient or otherwise congenial to them to enslave free men and women according to their whim and dictate.

No, non-smokers have no legitimate rights to go on other people's property demanding to be given a “smoke free” environment. They have no right to be there at all unless the property owner wants them there.

And to insist that a compromise can solve this problem, as Councilman Smokey Davis seems to believe, is naive. If you think you can reach a stable compromise with people who are OK with stopping you from smoking where both you and the property owner find it acceptable, than you haven't been paying attention. The would-be banners always regroup and push on to vanquish the new "demon," whether tobacco or something else.

Their mission is change. Yours is to adjust. If you give them this, the same people pushing for it will push to ban smoking even in private apartments, as it now is banned in the town of Belmont, California. When and where, begs to be asked, did they ever convey the impression that they believe in compromises? Your compromise is, to them, just proof of your weak will. They thrive by imposing theirs. And it appears that they will succeed. Either fight now and - again and again (because they will be back) or simply give up now; anything else is a fool's errand.

In fact, if you really want to win as much as they do (by putting winning above principle) you should change the battle ground. Demand that comfortable smoking areas be provided for the convenience of smokers in government buildings. Demand cigarette vending machines. Smokers are taxpayers too! Make minority rights your battle cry! Sweetness and light are of no use when confronted with zealots. They are always on the attack. They want the world as they imagine it could be. When they get power they darn well intend to use it!

What you have got is an activist head of Lexington County Council. Insofar as she, as an elected representative, would impose her will where she has no moral right to do so, she is a bad choice to represent a free people. This is a harsh statement, but it applies to individuals who, when entrusted with power, usurp the legitimate prerogatives of others, leaving those under their control with fewer options, and therefor, substantially worse off than before.

Laws that take away traditional rights have far reaching and unintended consequences. They set dangerous precedents, making a mockery of the idea for which the founding fathers fought - limited government. The society these laws will inevitably bring about will be a worse one - a society in which every right is provisional and up for grabs. Arguments for regulating all sorts of behavior will be put forward whenever it becomes fashionable to do so. "Thou-Shalt-Not" signs will go up one by one, replacing those that traditionally said "Freedom is Indivisible."

This type of activist government forces everyone to become politically minded, to take time out from their lives to fight a tyrannical mind set bent on creating a “Better Society Through Coercion.”

It matters not one bit that I myself am a non-smoker. This just makes it all the more necessary that I stand up for those who do smoke. As a non-smoker who has friends who are unable to endure a smoky environment, I sympathize with those who seek out smoke-free accommodations. And businesses have been eager to responded to their needs. Smoke free stores and restaurants are not underprovided. However, the moral high ground falls squarely with an individual's right to choose what lawful behavior to accommodate and what not to provide for on his or her own property.

No one is elected to rule over my neighbors, making their choices for them. Twenty percent of adult Americans still choose to smoke. Even if the percent should decline to less than 1%, their right to seek out accommodation where they can enjoy a normal life as they experience it, should be secure and not under attack.

Freedom is like that. The majority has no right to gang up on people different than themselves and try to kill their pleasure. To be sure, this belief in toleration and accommodation may be old fashioned, but I think that it will always be better than the alternative.

Only a self-righteous, bully mentality allows itself to contemplate using the blunt instrument of coercion on the very most hard working and responsible members of society who spend their lives building businesses to serve their neighbors.

These business operators know better than anyone else does what their customers want. That's how they serve them, by giving them what they want better than the competition can. Smokers have chosen some of these businesses over all others and if you deny the owners of these businesses the option of continuing to serve those customers, then you will inevitably put some of them out of business. What they have worked so hard to build, the do-gooder authoritarian will destroy with a stroke of a pen. That is the cold hard fact.

The concept of government control over business that is going on here is certainly not free enterprise. It is, in fact, “Fascism with a Smiley Face.”

In short, fascism is the form of economic organization where businesses owners come to actually "own" their businesses in name only. Because they are all licensed by government each of them is always on probation. Government officials take such an interest in the operation of their businesses and dictate so many rules (changing them at any time) that it becomes clear who the true "owners" are. Under this rule bound system, the business operator quickly finds that he is actually left in charge of very little.

These five individuals, who happen to hold temporary power on the Lexington County Council, having no personal stake in the business projects they would dictate to, have no moral right to force the owners to change the long-established policies that their customers' continued patronage proves the value of, in favor of a new, one-size-fits-all edict. In that they feel a moral right to remove a centuries-old right from property owners, they are, whether they know it or not, turning away from the time-honored principle of free association and, and in so doing, placing the shackles of fascist top-down domination upon their own people. They have become fascists themselves.

It is most important, therefore, that I throw in my lot with the beleaguered property owner. Simply put, a person's right to do as he or she pleases with, and on, their own property is no less important than freedom of speech itself. I am required to vociferously and steadfastly stand by them and against their enemies.

Those on the side of this law would diminish the sum total of freedom in the world, and they deserve reproach. Well intentioned as they believe themselves to be, they are displaying contempt for free men and women and have become the enemies of freedom itself.

Those who would take away your traditional rights are always alert. They think that they know best, and that, left alone, you will only abuse yourself and others. They must stop you. They are after your right to bear arms, your right of free association, your right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and now, even your right to determine whether people can smoke cigarettes in your restaurant. Sooner or later they come for each of your rights. Either you stand together, or one-by-one, you lose them all.

Our County Council consists of four individuals Billy Derrick, Todd Cullum, Bobby Keisler and Jim Kinard who understand that you have rights that shouldn't be attacked. One member, Smokey Davis, appears to be confused. Debbie Summers and the other three members (look them up) believe that they were elected to determine which rights you can continue to exercise in Lexington County and which ones they shall relieve you of.

This will go on. There will be another issue and another. The self-appointed lifestyle fascists want to make your life's choices more and more narrow (for your own good - of course!).

Don't take this lightly. If you wish to remain free men and women you can't .