The longer I live the more I realize there are people out there who still don’t get the theory of a free society.

We have become so politically correct that we can’t handle someone voicing their own opinion.

Case in point — advertising. It needs to be understood that anyone can advertise anything unless it is deemed illegal or obscene. This week I saw attempts by an individual in the community to tell the Portsmouth Daily Times who they couldn’t sell advertising to. I am amazed that in 2009 someone still does not understand that we are a free society, though fleeting it may appear in recent months.

This person warned us we would be hearing from her attorney because we refused to pull political ads she disagreed with.

I know it is tempting to join the ranks of the new trends in politics to have government control over our lives, but that temptation must be resisted.

I always say if you don’t defend your opponent’s right to exist and want to take it to legal action, it will eventually come around that someone will try to take away something you want to keep because they disagree with you.

I remember voting against the smoking bans. Quite frankly nothing bothers me more than having to breathe second-hand smoke. It actually makes me cough, makes my eyes water, and eventually hurts my lungs. However, to tell a bar or a restaurant that they cannot allow smokers is another one of those things that we knee-jerk reacted to. If a restaurant or a bar wants to put a sign outside their establishment that smoking is allowed, we should consider ourselves warned, and if, like me, you don’t want to breathe smoke you can go to another restaurant. Other establishments could post “no smoking” signs, and get the business the other place lost. Wow, I can’t believe I said something like that. It almost sounds like I believe in the free enterprise system. I voted against the smoking bans because there are things I like to do, and if the current trend continues something I like will probably be in danger of being outlawed by a bunch of bureaucrats who can’t even balance a checkbook, and I would then ask for those smokers to back my cause.

Here is a novel idea. If you don’t like something you see advertised, don’t patronize the company. You can even urge your friends to not patronize the company. If you’re really passionate about it, you can picket the place, as long as you allow access by those who want to patronize them.

Things will not always go our way. There are disappointments like speed bumps in our lives. They are momentary, and fall under the category of a free society.

In the end it is important to understand why America has been different from most nations on earth all of these years. We are tolerant, understanding, embrace diversity, and respect others.

A short quote for the day:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”