Oregon

Sitting here, almost ready to turn off the TV after having worked a hard second shift tonight, I am listening to Fox News on Cable in the background, and Bill O'Reilly has two different sets of interviews, which at least for the moment can be viewed by clicking on the video section on the right hand column of the page.

The first was two men representing "Gentlemen's Clubs" discussing the latest Oregon Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law regulating live sex shows, and another that regulated the behavior of nude dancers that was a local ordinance, citing freedom of speech and freedom of expression. And of course, the ACLU lauded the decision!

The second was a former Seattle police chief, Norm Stamper, author of "Breaking Rank", who says that illegal drugs should be legalized and regulated. O'Reilly pointed out that this has failed in other countries where it has been tried.

Oregon is also the only state which has assisted suicide laws as part of its claim to fame. And just look at the Netherlands for the results of that!

I would like to know where anyone gets the information that ANY of the leaders of our American Revolution, writers of our Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights, etc ever envisioned ANY of the above when they were building this country.

Long ago, when they began to speak about legalizing gambling, we had not long before been diagnosed as having a family disease of alcoholism, an addiction that affects not only the alcoholic, but the entire family, co-workers, and friends of that person in adverse ways. In discussing the 'benefits' of legal gambling, other family members, in favor of it, stated that it would bring in a LOT of money and lower taxes.

I said... it will make people who would NEVER gamble now because it is illegal, feel ok about gambling. In the process of doing that, we would see gambling addictions increase, and then more families would be destroyed by divorce and poverty. And I HIGHLY doubted that our taxes would ever be lowered. I was pooh-poohed and mocked.

I was right. There are many places online that can give you stats, if you want them, but this one, though from 1997 is typical. And I personally know six marriages that have ended with bankruptcy, divorce and the resulting devastation on spouse and children! Lying in order to get the spouse to sign second and third (and one had a small FOURTH mortgage) on the house, bills not paid, groceries not bought, credit ratings in the pits for YEARS for the one addicted AND the spouse. Two of my friends ended up having to pay off the mortgages because the addict had no money, and they got 'awarded' the bills! Others lost the homes that they'd owned for many years, ending up living in a trailer (old one) and hitting every place that could be found to try to 'hit the big one', spending money that they did have, avoiding former friends and family.

As to legalizing drugs, surely anyone with common sense can see that the same thing will happen. AND, if that isn't bad enough, those getting the drugs will be younger and younger all the time.

NO? You say that won't happen?

Have you ever worked in a gas station with a mini store that sells beer and cigarettes? Have you ever seen people purchase either or both, exit the store and quietly hand the package to waiting underage kids outside the store? I have. So has my daughter who worked in a grocery store and had to have a bartenders' license to sell the beer and liquor products they carried. So have many others.

Have you ever seen a carload of kids brought into the ER, some dead, some dying, some hurt critically (and at times, the passengers in the OTHER innocent car that they hit?) with very high blood alcohol levels even though each 'child' in that vehicle was underage? Some even only 13 or 14? I have. So has any Doctor or Nurse who has ever worked in a hospital. So have Coroners/Medical Examiners/Police.

And you think that legalizing drugs in this country won't have the same result? Not only will people who would NEVER use them when illegal begin to do so, automatically increasing the number of potential addicts, but many will also buy and supply those same kids who now want cigarettes and beer.

My middle daughter lost a close underage friend at one of those underage teen drinking parties out in the country. The OLDER brother bought the booze. The YOUNGER brother passed out by a tree, and no one noticed... until much later, when someone thought he looked 'funny'... 'blue'... and they could not get him to wake up. And he had no pulse, was not breathing. So instead of just calling an ambulance (what? and get everyone in trouble???) they 'wisely' put him in the back of a truck, and while careening around corners and curves, over rail road tracks, etc at a high rate of speed, some others 'attempted' to do CPR in the bed of the truck. They failed.

He was young. Too young to drink legally. He was on a ventilator for quite awhile, because his mom could not accept the fact that he would never wake up. He could not breathe without that respirator, and his bodily functions were shutting down. She finally had to say good bye to him. And then the police, through investigations, learned that it was his older brother who'd supplied the liquor that he had drunk to the point of coma and death. And the family had to deal with that, too.

What is going on in Oregon? In our country as a whole? Where is common sense? This is not 'FREEDOM' we are talking about. This is "LICENSE".

Freedom vs. License: From Father Corapi's teachings we learn the following: Freedom and fear are at war. Freedom is not, "being able to do whatever you want to do." That is license. If you have license, rather than authentic freedom, your house is built on sand and will collapse. Authentic freedom is the power to do what we ought to do; the power to choose the good, the true, and the beautiful. That will vanquish fear every time. If your concept of freedom is really license, fear will come out on top every time. Freedom has to be united with truth. There is no freedom outside of the truth: No authentic human freedom outside of the truth. "If you are truly my disciples, you will abide in my word. You will know the truth, and the truth till make you free." True freedom is rooted in God.