If you live in New England, you are bracing for a significant snow storm. With the snow totals and high winds forecasted the most significant effect of the weather will likely be wide spread power outages. Respective of the power outages, the effect will not be long lasting, but you could be at risk of frozen pipes if you don’t have backup heating. If you don’t and lose power, make sure you drain your pipes, bundle up, and add on the blankets. No problem. Certainly the panic buying over a couple feet of snow is not warranted and in fact, the storm looks like more of a great skiing opportunity than any end of the world event as the media has over dramatized. However, what are worrisome are the draconian edicts being issued by states ranging from curfews and travel bans to forcing people off of the sidewalks. The precedent being set is extremely dangerous and will be abused in the future if not challenged.
http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/cwp/view.asp?A=4010&Q=559968
Since when does a snowstorm in New England, a place accustomed to large snows and cold winters, dictate statewide travel bans after nine P.M. and curfews? Seriously, where is the outrage? Does the government really know what is best for you? Are we so inept that we need the government to dictate by threat of punishment when we deem it is safe to drive and walk on a sidewalk? If you live in New York City, the communist leaning Mayor de Blasio seems to think so even going so far as to warn people that when it snows the ground is slippery. Wow, newsflash! If it wasn’t for the government I would have likely dared to walk outside and slipped and fell. Good thing the mayor knows when it is best for me to drive to where I need to be. I wonder if the good mayor contemplated that it is entirely possible that you, as a New Englander, accustomed to cold winters, have chains, four wheel drive, and/or a plow allowing you to safely travel in the worst of conditions? Perhaps you work the night shift at the hospital or make a living from snow removal. Maybe you have to pick up your child or check on an elderly family member? The possibilities of why you need to travel are endless just like the over stepping of government authority. In the nanny state’s endless pursuit of “protecting” the public, it again has likely caused far more problems than it solved.
Allowing a snowstorm to be used to in effect, enact martial law, is indeed far more chilling than any blizzard. A person unable or unwilling to make even the most mundane decision for himself is nothing more than a slave in denial. I would posit that no government has the authority to bar a citizen from travel. Travel is one of the oldest and most recognized of human rights dating back to the Classical Greek Era and the custom of Xenia. Ultimately, if the state is required to respond because you get in a wreck or get stuck then you can legitimately expect to pay fees but to unilaterally ban travel is as unwarranted as it is unprecedented. For the citizens of New England, I believe you still have enough sense and good judgment to handle this winter storm without the draconian “help” of the government. If you do, you should also have the sense to realize the danger in the precedent being set. This time the travel ban will be justified to allow plows to clear roads, but the next time may be for an event you are trying to escape only to find that the good mayor has sealed your fate by closing roads and enforcing it with armed police and military troops. Contemplate this accordingly.
By Guiles Hendrik
January 26, 2015
