Freedoms being compromised by laws

As Americans, we are extremely lucky. We live in a nation founded upon freedoms, with courageous men and women sacrificing their livelihood to keep those freedoms alive. Although we are young as a nation, we have made stride after stride and advanced beyond any initial expectations.

This being said, the freedoms that we know and love are slowly being restricted. Regulations that we never thought would exist have come and passed without much surprise or thought. The more time passes, the more laws are brought into creation and more restrictions are put into place.

Now it may sound like I don't like rules or that I find authority to be annoying, but this just isn't true. I'm a firm believer in a ruling body and believe government to be absolutely necessary.

There are thousands upon thousands of laws that work extremely well at protecting, serving and helping people in all walks of life.

It's when laws invade our privacy and diminish our basic rights that I, and probably many of you, see a problem. We're good people and want to do what's right, but who decides what's right for all people?

One law that has come up many times with regard to restrictions on our privacy is the Patriot Act.

While there are many titles within this act, most of it can be summed up rather briefly.

This act gave the government a lot more freedom with regards to checking mail, both traditional and electronic, tapping phones, and gathering information concerning terrorism within private sources.

Many found this act to be unconstitutional while others saw it as a necessary step towards combating terrorism here on our own soil. I agree more with the former.

I believe a quote from Benjamin Franklin explains it correctly, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

There are a few other laws that have come under scrutiny. In California and several other states, it is an infraction for somebody to smoke cigarettes in a vehicle with a minor, somebody under the age of 18, also in the vehicle with them.

Trust me, I understand that blowing cigarette smoke on a young child in a cooped up vehicle is something that you never want to see. Frankly, I find it a bit disgusting, but is it the government's job to dictate whether a person can smoke cigarettes with whomever they want in their own private vehicle? Also, what if the driver is 18 years old and the minor is 17 years old and already smokes?

Although it has been in place for decades, the mandatory seatbelt law is one constantly discussed. I wear my seatbelt every time I drive, so naturally, this regulation does not bother me as much. Despite this, as I said before, your vehicle is your own. What gives the government the right to regulate specifically what you do within your own vehicle?

People who wear seatbelts are going to continue doing so whether or not there is a law in place.

Likewise, those who never follow this law are probably not going start on fear or motivation from the law, despite the fact that if they respected their own health and safety, they would buckle up.

America has always been viewed as the land of the free. Despite some of our caveats, we are still a shining example of what brave men and women can accomplish and what can come about from a simple act of dumping tea into a harbor.

From this seemingly trivial act of defiance, a nation was founded upon the premises that all men are created equal and everybody, as such, has rights that cannot be revoked.

These premises still follow us today, but how prevalent are they within the minds of politicians and officials as they create new laws and regulations?

We must stay educated and be aware of the dealings of our government.

As the Italian philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."