Editor, The Macomb Daily:

 

The article appearing February 15, 2007, entitled "Warren gambling bust results in nine arrested," reminds me of a profound observation made, I believe, by Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Bad laws make bad citizens."

 

The law in this case is the exercise in hypocrisy that bans gambling by citizens in venues that they choose, using methods they prefer, causing physical harm to no one. These laws, of course, are generated by harebrained legislators who have nothing better to do, it seems, than to meddle in the lives of fellow Americans. As H. L. Mencken said three generations ago, "a true puritan is one who cannot stand the thought that someone else might be having a good time."

 

Such meddlesomeness, of course, is what gives the lie to the pretense that this is a free country and that we are a free people. Americans will not evolve into a truly free society until its citizens give up their addiction to the Democrat and Republican Parties - both of whom despise a party to which they were not invited nor which they do not control. Our last, best hope may well be organizations such as the Libertarian Party, which understands what the limits of government ought to be.

 

John C. Bonnell