Daninski wrote:That my friend is a defeatist attitude. Freedom is all about keeping government out of our personal lives. As far as the price to be paid, exercising your democratic right and petitioning your congressmen (or whoever) is one way to show government you won't just bend over and let them carve you a new one.
To elaborate, we have all the freedom we want to petition whomever we want to petition. Assume you are successful... Great. Now how do you know they ever stopped monitoring you? No government is above scrutiny, but who's going to enforce the laws, when the enforcers are the ones breaking them? There's no simple solution... As for voting, and exercising rights, I'm 100% for EVERY SINGLE PERSON doing their part. I'll vote and vote, even campaign against what I believe is wrong. It's just not possible(at this time) to enforce this type of demand...
My city is attempting to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars right now, revamping our local transit(LTD, bus lines)
Their "revamp" will mean they build shiny new buses, which hold more people, and then consolidate some 30+ bus routes into 10 or 12. This will harm local businesses, and make it much more difficult for commuters/students to get around. Basically, they'll spend hundreds of millions, all in the name of saving gas money and hiring fewer drivers. This will result in fewer people riding, so less money coming in, and people will have to drive everywhere. Which costs more money, as it wears the roads out even faster. Just off the top of my head, these are obvious problems with their plans...
Want to know the best part? For 2+ years now, tens of thousands of Eugenians have been pushing for a public vote on the revamped transit. Guess what hasn't happened? Yeah... They don't want it to come to a public vote. 10% of this city's population actually pushed for the public vote, imagine how many more would actually vote against the entire project if it came to one. Money is the determining factor of governmental action these days, and it's a sad, sad reality...