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IF that's how you want to take it, fine, but I should have that *choice*. Our govt was founded to protect our Liberties, and one Liberty we can not do without is the right to make our own choices, right or wrong, and suffer the results ourselves.
Overzealous Govt (and many people who support this sort of thinking) are chipping away at our rights. Some people simply get a kick out of making other people jump through their hoops. At various times throughout history it was religious zealouts doing that, or activists like the Temperance movement. Today it's the Nannies and the Nanny State giving people their "I'm holier than Thou" fix.
Btw, I always wear my seatbelt, and I wear a helmet when I ride my motorcycle... but I object to someone else standing over me with wagging finger ordering me to do so with the threat of legal force.
You do realise you are not actually being prevented from doing anything you like, like everything else in life there is simply a consequence being attached to that choice:
Wear your seatbelt and increase your chances of surviving an acident, Don't wear your seatbelt and increase you chance of a serious injury and a penalty fine.
Your rights are not being eroded you are simply being told there is a consequence to what you are doing. (This is not a new thing, it holds true fundamentaly for everything since the beginning of time! remember Einstein's cause and effect?)
Now you are perfectly able to choose to oppose any law you do not like and not conform to it, however there is a consequence, it is your decision.
BTW I am glad that governments make decisions that help protect our children. Whilst everyone here obviously holds their children's welfare as a top priority, unfortunately it is not so everywhere. There are always those people who will only care for their children when a threat of financial hardship , imprisonment, etc is likely. For those children's lives, laws like this are litteraly life saving.
IMHO Children are not the property of their parents, they have a right to their protection under the law and a right to the freedom to grow up and pursue their constitutional rights, they cannot do that if some idiot parent thinks its okay to sit them in the back of a car and turn them into hamburger in the event of an accident!
I was not going to say this as I wanted to be objective and not personal, but I was thrown through the back of a car window when i was 3 weeks old after my father placed my crib on the back seat. He was only going to the store and it was not far. He always drove carefully, unfortunately the drunk driver who hit us did not.
My Mum was left severely scarred after the accident, she sufered terrible nightmares, post natal depression and had a nervous breakdown. I was thrown through the rear window and landed on the grass at the side of the highway. Even though I was fine my father has never forgiven himself for what happened, my mother said looking behind her and not seeing me there was the worst moment of her life.
I was incredibly fortunate but how many other people think the same thing... its not far, i'm only driving slow, it's only the back roads, there's never any traffic around here, they're my kids, i decide, its too much hassle to get the kids in their seat, it's my constitutional right (to endanger my kids!)...........
Very well written response and obviously this is a topic personal to you.
I don't have a problem with the government trying to protect children.
I have a problem with a government that can mandate almost every
aspect of our lives.
Where does it end? Most deaths in this country are a direct result
of our diets. When are the world governments going to start writing
tickets to overweight people or when will motorcycles be outlawed or
smoking be banned or anything else with risk attached?
Every day there are more and more laws with politicians championing
these laws hoping to have a spot in the history books. What about
when we add a new law we remove an old one.
I dunno.
