Utah town doesn’t
know what ‘tyrannical government’ is
Commentary by PAT
MURPHY
The tiny
Utah town of Virgin is the latest to develop the "us against
them" syndrome by enacting a law requiring residents to keep a gun
and ammunition in their homes.
What’s
sad is the ordinance’s rationale — for "protecting citizens from
street thugs and tyrannical government."
With a gun
in every homeowner’s hands, is tiny Virgin preparing for a shootout with
the ill-defined "tyrannical government" that Virgin considers so
menacing?
And who is
the "tyrannical government" the town of Virgin loathes — such
benign entities as Utah’s congressional delegation, Social Security, the
Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National
Institute for Health, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration? Who?
Virgin’s
political leaders must’ve been asleep during civics classes in school.
Ordinance
No. 2000-06-15 claims that "Federal, State and local government
appear to be content to allow special interest groups to be the deciding
factor in what the private citizens can and cannot do."
Someone
should’ve told Virgin’s elected officials that laws determining
"what private citizens can and cannot do" are written and
enacted by elected officials, not by "special interest groups."
Oh, and
Virgin also detests the Grand Canyon Trust, the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance and the Utah Wilderness Coalition. So, it adopted Resolution No.
99-05-20D declaring them to be "persona non grata (not welcome) in
our community." So there.
The
unhealthy paranoia about "tyrannical government" is the
handiwork of self-serving politicians and institutions that exploit
simple-minded fears and gullibility, and go far beyond intelligent
criticism.
The
National Rifle Association arguably is the most responsible for creating a
mentality that leads otherwise genteel citizens into preparing for some
mythical action by government against Americans.
Remember
the NRA campaign calling federal law enforcement agencies
"jack-booted thugs," using images strikingly similar to photos
of Hitlerian Storm Troopers on the march and words suggesting American
liberties were about to be canceled by government?
A few
politicians who constantly run against Washington add to this "us
against them" mindset. In recently announcing his retirement, U.S.
Sen. Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican, said "I do not like
government" — although he has spent more than half his adult life
in Washington, and will retire with a government pension worth millions of
dollars. Gramm obviously didn’t dislike government that much to hang
around that long.
President
Bush the Junior does his part to create doubts by regularly denigrating
the federal government — although most of what he has today he owes to
his father, Bush the Elder, who spent virtually his entire adult life at
the public trough as part of the federal government as congressman, CIA
director, envoy to China, vice president and president.
The folks
in Virgin, Utah, don’t know what "tyrannical government" is,
unless they’ve visited any of scores of countries where free speech,
free elections, a free press and freedom of religion are banished, and
people who’re thrown into rat-infested prisons for merely criticizing
the government have no court system for appeal and can be executed on
orders of an army general.
The only
explanation for Virgin’s aberrant attitude is that local politicians (a)
are simple-minded dunces, (b) they’re forgetful and ungrateful for
freedoms that people the world over cherish or (c) they’re all the
above.