American Republic Online

The New York City Council has a measure before it that would ban the use of the word “bi—,” and “ho.”

The term is hateful and deeply sexist, said Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, who has introduced a measure against the word, saying it creates “a paradigm of shame and indignity” for all women.

Great. I hope it is starting to become clear: if we allow it, government will grow and we will be forced to live we are “supposed to.” While I would probably agree with Councilwoman Mealy regarding the its effect (provided she tones down the rhetoric), using the force of government do dictate how she thinks people should behave is absolutely unacceptable. This paternalism has been creeping for years now: seat belt laws, trans fat bans, etc. While there is value in the concern, why do we need to government to tell us how to live, and “watch out for our well-being?” If I want to drive without a seat belt, what’s it to you? Or to the state legislator for that matter? I’m not threatening anyone else.

Coming back to legislating speech, how will they enforce it? Can you imagine a cop driving out to someone’s house and writing a ticket for what they said? Well, how about writing a ticket for smoking? Both are equally ridiculous, and tax already burdened resources. Shouldn’t police be chasing bank robbers and murderers?

We need to start waking up. The more we insist the government think for us, provide for us and protect us, the more dependent we will become. Currently, most people are ok with saying that the government should provide for our retirement, health care, education, find us a job, etc.  But where is the line?  Will we draw a line?