Harry Browne
Harry Browne is a columnist who chooses his words very wisely. He is a reasonable man. You can always count on his opinion as well as facts to liven up any story. In his recent column, “If you aren’t guilty, what are you afraid of?” Browne has written about his views on Homeland Security. He doesn’t believe that the laws are only effecting the guilty. He has said that once a new tough law has been put into place, the guilty will have done everything in their power to understand the laws that might effect them, and learn knew ways to get around them. The innocent then go without the knowledge, and they are going to be the ones who are punished, because they are told the innocent don’t need to worry. In this column, Browne wrote, “After the dust settles, the initial ‘problem’ continues unabated, because the guilty have slipped through the net. But the innocent are left burdened with new chores, expenses, and dangers.” For instance, the government spends so much money on regulating people on the use of marijuana, when the people who are smoking aren’t hurting anyone else. People can end up with a fine or even time in jail for the use or distribution of such narcotic. “A woman [or man] has a right to control his own body.”
Do you think the government is right in saying that the laws are only effecting the guilty? Should there be more knowledge distributed among the population about the new laws taking effect?
I think the Government is partially correct in saying that the laws are only effecting the guilty. I also believe more knowledge should be presented to the population so they are aware if they are breaking the law or not. However if someone is not aware of the law, and it is a fairly new law I do not think they are truly guilty. If there is more knowledge this issue would be more limited. I agree with what Harry Browne said for the most part.
I agree with your columnist and he is a very wise person. The Government is wrong in saying that the laws are only effecting the guilty because they only let the guilty know about the laws, so the innocent people have no clue. There should be more knowledge distributed among the population about the new laws taking effect because this would not be much of a problem if more people knew about it.
I don’t agree that the laws are only effecting the guilty. Your writer makes a lot of sense when he says that criminals are more willing to study laws and find ways around them. I think that many people don’t fully understand a lot of laws, and they might not even be aware of new laws. This may lead to an accidental offense. I think that most people know the difference between right and wrong, however, and will not accidentally commit crimes, but just in case, there should be more information given to the public when a new law is created. If this is done, awareness will be raised and there will be no confusion.
I agree with Browne on this situation. People need to be informed about the laws new and old of our country. This way more people can know if what they are doing is against the law. If the government activates a law and really doesn’t explain the law or openly notify the people, then how can the government find people guilty who were oblivious to the entire thing? I agree with Browne in saying that the laws are only affecting the guilty.
I think that it depends on the law. Some laws are very hard for the guilty to avoid, no matter how much they know about it, and in the end they will be caught. But these laws tend to affect very serious things that innocent people couldn’t “stumble” into, and end up bearing the punishment for something they didn’t do. I think only poorly-set-up laws will end catching the innocent and not the guilty, and these may even be laws that are just hastily put in place to catch someone and make it look like something’s being done about a particular issue. For example, marijuana. People end up getting fined or even put in jail for that because of public opinion. There are still many old, conservative people that see it as an evil drug, and if the government wasn’t seen to be cracking down on it, there would be an uproar.
I think that there should definitely be knowledge circulated among the people about new laws taking effect. People have a right to know if they are going to be punished for something they had always thought was legal and is now suddenly not. However, people should have to bring it upon themselves to find this information, as long as it is easily accessible. People should take an active role in understanding their government, its laws and how they are enforced. This way, you will have a responsible populace of well-educated citizens, and no innocent people will be accidentally entrapped by laws they didn’t know about while the guilty slip away because they have information.
I agree with Harry Browne in saying that the new laws need to be spread to everyone so that more of the population knows about the laws. I do not believe that only the guilty are being effected by the new laws because everyone should be effected but the distribution of the knowledge of the law is lacking so the innocent people don’t really here about the laws. So in a way only the guilty are effected but it should not be that way.