Posted on 07/03/2010 2:18:55 PM PDT by Petruchio
Chicago, IL—Not so long ago in American history African-Americans were shut out of the voting booth through extortionate poll taxes. Blacks had no money and voting was impossible. It took a while but the courts intervened and the poll taxes were outlawed.
There was another outrageous obstacle preventing African-Americans from voting and that was literacy testing. The majority of Blacks, were just too poorly educated and could not pass the tests local governments required. If a voter could not pass the test, the voter could not vote. Again the courts finally intervened and banned the illegal practice.
A Constitutional right is just that, a right. Government can’t require anyone to either, pay for, be tested for or wait in order to enjoy a Civil Right. Mayor Richard M. Daley and the City Council have defied the law of the land and civil liberties of the people of Chicago by attempting to circumvent the United States Supreme Court’s edict in McDonald vs. City of Chicago.
The City of Chicago has done all of the above to violate the Civil Rights of Chicagoans with their brand new gun ban scheme. In order to enjoy the right to own a handgun they are requiring extortionate fees, testing, and waiting up to four months as a scheme or artifice to prevent gun ownership.
Government can require fees, testing and waiting before granting privileges such as driving an automobile. Government cannot treat Civil Rights in the same fashion as privileges.
The law-abiding African-Americans of Chicago have suffered the most because they have been at the mercy of armed criminals, an undermanned police department and early inmate release programs by corrections officials. Imagine being poor and living in the ghetto without the meaningful ability to defend yourself.
A trip any day to Chicago’s Cook County Morgue is a lesson in murder and racial discrimination. The overwhelming percentage of murder victims brought here are Black. This demonstrates both the enablement of violent criminals by Daley’s failed gun ban and preventable suffering by victims that were barred from defending themselves.
Chicago’s Aldermen and Mayor, on the other hand have the right their office gives them to carry concealed weapons. They are overpaid, part-time workers that live and work in relative safety as they drive safe cars and commute to safe locations to do their work and play. The Mayor and at least one Alderman have 24/7 bodyguard details of armed Chicago cops.
This is nothing less than a Civil Rights issue. The very ugly origin of Gun Control in America began in the South during Post-Civil War Reconstruction as a way to keep the newly freed slaves disarmed. The concept spread North as a way to keep immigrants disarmed.
If the pathetic politicians of City of Chicago were really concerned about gun safety they’d offer free classes in existing schools. Obviously they only demand it now to enable them to violate Civil Rights. Free classes on gun safety would certainly be good public policy.
Before you head back do be sure and let me know. It'd be a real pleasure to shake your hand and share a meal.
L
Bingo. Heinlein put it well over 50 years ago:
“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a “warm body” democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction…. Once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader — the barbarians enter Rome.” To Sail Beyond the Sunset Robert A.Heinlein
Or in our case the barbarians revolt from within.
Bingo. Heinlein put it well over 50 years ago:
“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a “warm body” democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction…. Once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader — the barbarians enter Rome.” To Sail Beyond the Sunset Robert A.Heinlein
Or in our case the barbarians revolt from within.
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