Left’s idea of ‘rights’ hurts individual freedoms
Unfortunately, Jay Bookman is correct when he says health care is now considered a right for everyone in “Health care is now a right,” Opinion, July 23.
The dictionary indeed defines a right as an entitlement to fulfill someone’s needs. But the rights Bookman cites from the Constitution were perceived by the founders as already belonging to people. Nobody had to give those rights. To allow you to have free speech or to carry arms, etc., requires merely that I do nothing to interfere. This modern definition of “a right” as Bookman and the left extol it, is something the government grants and freely includes imposing requirements on other people to provide you things.
Oddly, as these rights expand, individual freedom diminishes. This is the liberal dream because once that is acceptable, then from there the list of “rights” can be expanded without end.
MIKE ANTHONY, DULUTH
Why is GDOT director getting a raise?
Tell me how I can get a job where no one questions my role in a fire that took down the I-85 bridge for months and cost $16 million in taxpayer money to rebuild — and in fact which offers me a raise to $350,000 a year for my brilliant handling of this completely preventable man-made disaster.
We are prosecuting Basil Eleby for allegedly lighting a match to what our GDOT director Russell McMurry left under that bridge. Why is he getting a raise instead of being hauled into court himself?
PATRICIA YEARGIN, LILBURN
Lack of public hearings on bill undemocratic
Trying to pass closed-door, dead-of-night legislation is bad politics regardless of the subject of the legislation or party affiliation of the people writing it. The fact that the majority leader in the Senate attempted to overhaul health care (a system which constitutes a sixth of the American economy) without the input of his electorate – or many members of his own party – is undemocratic. The fact that he expected members of his party to vote yes on the bill – without even seeing it – is tyrannical.
I think liberals and conservatives agree the ACA is an imperfect bill. But at least it was built by a democratic process: public hearings, televised town halls, committee debate. If senators Perdue and Isakson help advance this bill, we must question their definition of democracy.
CASSANDRA WILLIAMS, STONE MOUNTAIN
Cyclists must find safer paths to ride
Every Sunday morning, I see the groups of cyclists and am reminded again how nonsensical it is for bicyclists to insist on using heavily traveled two-lane thoroughfares for their weekend jaunts. How much fun could that be? The roads where I see groups of weekend cyclists either have no shoulders to speak of or have curbs 18 inches off the outside edge of the pavement. Cyclists seem to be ignoring the reality of sharing such a dangerous environment with two-ton autos traveling 30 or 40 miles per hour on hilly, curving roads with few opportunities for passing. I understand it is legally their right to do so, but should that legal right not be tempered with common sense in finding a safer place to ride? By and large, these roads were designed and built in a time when accommodating bicycle traffic was not a design criterion. Having slow-moving bicycle traffic in a roadway where it is not safe to do so is a danger to both the bicyclists and to the automobile traffic. Why isn’t this obvious to bicycle riders? Find another way, guys, another place. Ride where there are bike lanes. If there are none in your area, get on your elected representatives. Ride in rural areas where there is less traffic. Most of all, be safe and be guided by common sense – stay off the busy roads that weren’t designed for you.
JIM IRVIN, CANTON
