Playing Chicken

Life is different in America. In some countries , (Ethiopia, Darfor, Iraq) the main impetous of life is survival. A young man in Iraq has three choices, fight the American Crusaders, fight the foreign (and domesticate) insurgents, or be a victim of either or both. If this hpothetical young Iraqi wants thrills he doesn't need extreme sports like base jumping or skiing through avalanche zones. He just needs to walk down his hometown street. More thrill than I need.

In America we ARE safe. The violence of 9/11 was a wakeup call, but our country for all its ills resists the rule of club and rifle. We have expectations.

We expect a just and fair police force, from the part time rent a cop in the village down the road to the Director of the FBI. We expect innocence to be rewarded and guilt punished. Hell, we expect to be treated as innocent until we ARE proven guilty.

We expect that violent defense of our property is a requirement only if we live in the "wrong" neighborhoods. We expect the criminals to be responsible for the laws they break.

Some of us think that if we make enough laws there won't be any criminal activity. (Guns are a great example. Criminals who carry guns DON'T get permits, go through background checks, and register their weapons. So why do we need more "stringent" gun control laws? The law abiding citizen isn't the problem. The criminals are. And remember; They're CRIMINALS. They don't obey laws... duh. So what good do more laws do except hinder the law abiding?)

While I'm on the subject of laws and criminals: Laws that try to coerce the majority into a narrow set of behaviors fundamentally make an intermediate class of lawbreakers. Consider: A recent study states that most states have a 10 to 15 mph tolerance on the maximum speedlimit. Why? Because 96% of the traffic exceeds the speedlimit by that much. These scofflaws represent a solid majority of the public using the highway system. Breaking a law makes you a criminal, right?

Anyway: The point behind this post is to outline the expectations of Americans. We expect things to be better here than any other place in the world. Yet we still don't meet our own expectations. Our leaders aren't held to a high enough standard and if they aren't why should we? If the laws we live under are not reasonable on the little things (like speeding) why should we believe they are reasonable on bigger issues. (like taxes).

Remember if we're already criminals what does it matter if we break another stupid law?