What do you think about our lovely laws here in the good old USA???
By kylaerin
@kylaerin (145)
United States
April 30, 2009 12:00pm CST
Do not get me wrong by this post...I LOVE AMERICA...however, I do feel that our justice system needs vast improvement. I think that it is completely insane that our laws are not uniform acrossed the board. I know people will say oh well it takes away state rights and blah blah blah. But seriously why can you kill someone in one state and get out in 5 years and in another your in for life. Personally, I am for the later, I do not think that murderers and rapists should ever under any circumstance be let back into society. I am not one for rehabilitation for someone who can rape a child or kill someone in cold blood. I think another thing that really makes me mad is our drunk driving laws...why do we have so many drunk driving accidents...because all you get is a night in the drunk tank in most places and a fine. I have actually even known people who have been pulled over drunk by a cop and told to go home and sleep it off...I am sorry if your crash into someone crap faced drunk don't use the poor poor pitiful me I didn't know this could happen I didn't mean for it to happen. Yeah you didn't mean for it to happen, but it did, that family will NEVER see their loved one again and no amount of you being sorry is going to change that. People should be punished more severely and maybe if they were are crimes rates would not be so high. If you are caught drunk driving you should automatically lose your license for 6 months, have to take AA classes, and be randomly tested for alcohol for at least 3 years after the accident. I know this is where people come in and say oh well I have a job...YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE YOU WERE AN IDIOT :)....you lose your house once over beer your probably not going to do it again..its call a cab or public transport, or car pooling..you can do it it just a little more effort. Or, some might say no alcohol for three years or whatever thats harsh...NO not really considering they have already proven that they can not either A. handle alcohol, or B. handle themselves responsibly when drinking. I think the problem with some americans is that they want to blame everyone else for their problems...its so and so's fault and I was depressed, and yada yada yada...we have to take responsibility for our selves and our actions and be held accordingly when we don't across the board...laws need to be the same everyone and quite frankly they need to be stricter so that less innocent people are hurt in the face of some elses ignorance. Sorry out front if I offended anyone..I am just curious if anyone else has notice that our laws generally suck and are not effective and what your opinions are on changing them if you have any.
2 responses
@Rtlsnk316 (1197)
• Mexico
30 Apr 09
Hi kylaerin,
I'm not from the States, but there's always been something about the law in your country that makes me guess "what will they come up with now?"
It's hard not to notice how different the system works from one state to another and in several ocassions, excuse me if I say this, it's ridiculous to know how anybody can get away with almost anything "legally".
The USA is a great country, no doubt about it, but as any other, they do have their own issues in some areas.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
1 May 09
*** Breaks heard schreeching loudly
Hold on there just a minute.
States rights are FAR from a trivial issue. They are the fabric of what keeps us a nation free of tyrany. The 9th and 10th amendments were put in place to guaranty our form of limited federal government because an all powerfull government is not only expenseive, clumbsy, ineffective and beurocratic, it is prone to great corruption and tyrany. If you have issues with laws in your state not being effective or severe enough, it is best dealt with there, in your state and far easier than trying to change the laws of an entire nation. and I personaly do not want someone in another state influencing laws in my own state, it is my state, just as I would never consider dicating to another state what laws it should create.
We expect and ask far too much from our federal government and the founding fathers feared this greatly. Which is why when the states entered in to contract with each other, via the constitution, they set out to create a simple subserviant agent, with limited authority and dutiy to carry out common business and international affairs and national defense. As we started making this agent more powerful it began to become an entity unto itself that saw the power it had as derived from itself when in reality it draws it's authortiy only from the people and the states and only by our consent, it does not exist with out it. But as we surrender more to it, the servant is slowly (and in some cases not so slowly) becomming the master. this is not the way it is suposed to be. the federal government only has specific authority and does not have the authority to dictate to the governors or legislatures of the states, it cannot simply had down decreas and orders to them, they do not have this authority. We have just been letting that slide far too much and look at the results.
Carefull what you wish for, a centralized government with great consolidated power is not at all what you imagine it might be, it is a terrifying thing and should be resisted at every turn.
Some parting warnings from our founders:
[i] "A governmment big enough to give you everything you ask for, is also big enough to take everything you have"
"when the people fear the government, there is tyrany, when the government fears the people, there is liberty"
[/i]
~Thomas Jefferson
