Dear Congress,

I read an article in the Saturday, May 22, 1999 Southeast Missourian about Senator Kit Bond who wants to "Put heat on Hollywood". The article stated that "Bond wants President Clinton and Congress to appoint a commission of up to a dozen members to look at what steps the government could take to reduce the quantity and restrict access to movies containing violent or pornographic material."

Again, utilizing our emotions, our government would like to turn one tragedy into another excuse to limit individual rights and expand their power, an even bigger tragedy is about to take place. I would like to suggest that our Congress read an article called "Social Violence, Self-Defense, and the Police State" by Sarah Thompson, M.D. (which can be found at alt.politics.libertarian). Ms. Thompson article suggests several things:

1. There is a false assumption that the world can be made perfectly safe. There always will be criminals, mental illness, stupid and irresponsible people, not to mention wars, natural disasters and wild beasts.

2. The whole purpose of society is to protect its members from attacks on their persons and property. The "problem" is not guns, or mental illness, teenagers, video games, movies, music, the internet, working mothers, or any of the other simplistic "targets" of our sorrow, anger and frustration. The problem is that we have created a society that does not work.

3. We need to restore the concept of individual responsibility and refocus our criminal justice system on its true purpose of swiftly and consistently punishing those who commit a crime against a person or property. Our criminal justice system would stand a much better chance of stopping violent crime if it ended its insane wars on drugs, prostitution, pornography and gun ownership, and devoted its resources to crime prevention and to apprehending and punishing violent criminals.

4. In order to have rights, all rights have to be protected. The only true rights are those that each of us has. Taking away rights from one person in order to "protect" another person only limits liberty and does not solve the problem.

5. Government should be held accountable for the actions it takes. If the government forces people to pay for public school, forces children to attend them and prevents parents and teachers from adequately protecting those children, those responsible for such policies should be held individually responsible for the consequences of their policies. Not by allowing those injured to pick the deep pockets of taxpayers, but by holding our elected and appointed officials individually responsible for the results of their own laws and policies.

Down through history, it can be noted that literature, movies, and art have been proven to reflect the thoughts of the times, not cause them. Don't let our government utilize a tragedy to usurp more of our individual liberty. The loss of liberty as well as the loss of individual responsibility is the problem, not the solution. It is time to get back to God given rights that come with personal responsibility and accountability for actions. No individual or government can control the actions of another individual.

Sincerely yours,

Mary Nall

Click to go to the Bollinger County Libertarians Web Site where James and Mary Nall's articles are featured.

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