The blog about Trooper Cooper has drawn many comments from readers, all of them negative. Some are personal attacks trying to elicit a response, and those should be and are ignored by the Perspective. Comments about the nature of the blog and from co-workers warrant a response.
Trooper Cooper is a likable young man, and believes that he is doing the best job that he is able. At issue is that on a day of treacherous conditions is the best course of action to be concerned about public safety or to issue citations?
In his schooling the Perspective was taught several lessons about our nation and its rules and regulations. (these are principles not necessarily related to this particular blog)
Our nation was founded after the overthrow of tyranny.
"I have sworn . . . eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" Thomas Jefferson. It was illegal to throw tea in Boston Harbor, It was illegal to assert independence from the British throne. It was illegal for women and blacks to vote.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
– Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist
Henry David Thoreau wrote in “Civil Disobedience”
“I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.”
Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. The right is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. Nonetheless the degree to which the right is upheld in practice varies greatly from one nation to another. In some nations with relatively authoritarian forms of government, overt government censorship is enforced.
As Americans we have the right to free speech, which sometimes provokes debate. This debate often leads to resolution of problems within our country.
We are also taught that there is a difference between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law”, a recent example: Sen. Byrd delivered the following remarks regarding the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be the nation's next attorney general. During the speech, the senator expressed strong concerns about Mr. Gonzales' role in the prisoner abuse scandals that have arisen from cases in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, and the use of torture as an approved American interrogation policy. Sen. Byrd also told his colleagues that the nominee, as the White House counsel, has been responsible for programs and policies that undermine the principles of the Constitution of the United States.
