Vices Are Not Crimes?

"Vices are not crimes," is a quote by Lysander Spooner.  Spooner was a political theorist, activist and abolitionist. He was outspoken during the American Civil War.  There is a problem with semantics here.  Vices cause crimes.  And yes, I truly believe in freedom.  Are vices crimes?  What if your "vice" is touching little girls inappropriately.  What if your "vice" is that you have an obsessive desire to steal, so you steal.  What if your "vice" is that you like to drive a vehicle while you are drunk?  How does one differentiate between a vice and a bad habit that also happens to be against the law.  What if my "vice" truly harms others?  Oddly enough, I might find myself agreeing with Mr. Spooner, if I were able to understand his context.

Poem In November: By Lucas Dominguez

The following poem was written by Lucas Dominguez in the month of November of 1994 when he was in the 8th grade at Bonita Vista Middle School.  It is entitled: "What I Am Thankful For."  There is irony in this poem, it is in the last line.  "But the thing I'm most thankful for is that I'm alive."  On Thanksgiving Day, November 24th, 1994, Lucas was in a terrible automobile accident, while with his family, about 90 miles from Phoenix, Arizona.  I too, was in the van.  It was demolished.  It landed on top of Lucas.  This poem was written about one week before the accident took place.

What I Am Thankful For
By Lucas Dominguez
Grade 8

"Christmas comes just once a year, it is a time for joy and cheer.
Some have little, but I have much: I have legs that walk and hands that touch;
I have a bed to sleep in and clothes to wear; I have food on my table and even some to spare.
I'm not deathly ill and I am not in pain; I can walk around without a cane.
I have eyes to see and a nose to smell; I have ears that hear, a mouth that tells.
I have shoes and clothes and toys and hats; I have pencils and pens and baseball bats.
I've travelled to places many miles away, and I thank the Lord for another day.
I have a house to live in and a car to drive, But the thing I'm most thankful for is that I'm alive."

A Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

---

Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edit

My Letter To The Washington Post About Lincoln

Today, I wrote a letter to the Washington Post in reference to an article written on Tuesday November 19, 2013, the day of the 150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.  It was entitled:  "The Road To America Leads Through Gettysburg."  It was written by Nancy F. Koehn.  She gave honor to the speech delivered by Lincoln 150 years ago.  So do I.  I honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln because I consider him the greatest President this country has ever had.  There is a reason for this, and the reason is stated in my letter to the Washington Post, below:

I am convinced that the Gettysburg Address is one of the greatest speeches ever made by anybody.  However, I would also like to emphasize the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a great orator without having much formal education.  Every speech he ever made contained a reference to God or a quote from the Bible. The letters he wrote to friends and colleagues contained the quotes and references as well.  Simply stated: he was a "Bible man."  I am convinced that this is what made him wise, patient, kind and with a great sense of humor.  Lincoln was "full of the Word."  During his early childhood, it was the only book (s) to which he had access.  He learned to read from the Bible.  Yes......he was a "Bible man,"  and that is what made him great..... in more ways than one.       Robert Dominguez

Unjust Laws

  

I am of the opinion that if an unjust law exists, it needs to be removed, and it needs to be removed speedily.  There are those before me, who were much more knowledgeable than I, who have influenced my thinking.  The fact is that laws are made by men, therefore, they must have flaws.  The flaws must be corrected because they represent the possibility, or perhaps the guarantee, of injustice.  In no way does this necessarily mean that I have disrespect for law.  Is not the purpose of law to execute justice? Is not the purpose of law to help people be safe and enjoy peace?  Who can argue with those goals?  It is just that in these pursuits the makers of laws can make mistakes.    Below are just 3 quotes that reflect my point of view.    RD

"There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate.This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are 'just' because the law makes them so."

 Frederic Bastiat(1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author.

"I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy.You can only punish.  I warn you that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys everyoneit touches.....its upholders as well as its defiers."

Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee

Source: the book, Inherit the Wind

"To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means.....to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal.....would bring terrible retribution."

Justice Louis D. Brandeis(1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a greater sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.  It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Some Interesting Quotes About Laws

"Let us revise our views and work from the premise that all laws should before the welfare of society as a whole and not directed at the punishment of sins."  

 John Biggs, Jr .(1895-1979) former Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, Third Circuit (1945-65)

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral,is not sufficient warrant."  

 John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)  English philosopher and economist

"We enact many laws that manufacture criminals,and then a few that punish them."   

 Benjamin R. Tucker     (1854-1939)