Voice of the People - February 7, 2009
Smoking bans erode our freedom
Regarding local smoking bans: The issue here is much larger than smoking itself. Those who are looking only at the smoking issue and are so willing to give their individual rights away are missing the point entirely. If you think it will stop with only the smoking issue, you are dead wrong! It is about constitutional rights and freedom.
This is legislation that is singling out a group of Americans and trampling on their constitutional rights. I don't like cigarette smoke personally, but this legislation crosses the limits of what government should be doing. There is a much better way to achieve the goal. It is a foreign concept to both Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols and the York County Council. It is called freedom and the free enterprise system!
This is the way it works: Restaurant and bar owners choose whether they want to be a smoking or a non-smoking facility. Patrons then choose whether they want to eat, drink or work in their establishments. The free enterprise system takes over from there. No one is forcing anyone to eat, drink or work in their place of business. It is an individual decision.
Isn't that what being an American is all about? In the absence of freedom there is only one thing left -- tyranny! If you listen closely, you can hear the hissing of the beguiling serpent behind this decision and the tapping of the hammer, chipping away at personal liberties. There is a price to be paid for having government make decisions like this for you. You may like this decision, it may favor you, but to give government that kind of power over society in order to get gratification for your immediate wants is not only selfish, it will prove costly in the long term.
The next decision may not favor you. Why do you think the Founding Fathers went to such great lengths to limit government?
Jon Neigenfind
York
God favors our nation
It is so sad that a man is identified by the color of his skin. Barack Obama is identified as black because of the color of his skin even though his mother is identified as white. Will this part of history ever change? When God created man, he called him man. Not black man, white man, red man or any color man.
Obama did not become president because of the color of his skin. He is president because it is the will of God. This is God's world, and he has allowed us to live in it. His will has been done and will continue to be done. By his grace we are a blessed nation. Acknowledge him, thank him and accept his will, and our nation will continue to be blessed and highly favored.
Anne Teasley
Rock Hill
We have adult in the White House
Boy, isn't it nice to have a mature and thoughtful president again, someone who admits his mistakes, takes responsibility for them, then proceeds to correct them? After eight long years of being subjected to the callowness and adolescent obstinacy of the previous occupant of the White House, it's awfully nice to have an adult back in charge. An early spring has come to America!
Bob Gorman
Rock Hill
This story was originally published February 7, 2009 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Voice of the People - February 7, 2009."