Michael Lissack vagrancy, or turn high-spiritedness into disturbing the peace. With thoughts like these pervading our judiciary and creeping into the legislative branch, a great gulf has developed between the general public and politicians. The wholesale overturning of the bars to crime and disorder has scrambled the moral order. What becomes of the sense of justice when, almost daily, people violate the fundamental principle of the social contract? What becomes of the sense of personal responsibility for actions when people take no respon- sibility for their own? The “right to privacy” has been extended to protect drug abuse and criminal records. It is difficult if not impossible for an employer to iden- tify, much less dismiss drug abusers, alcoholics, criminals, or the mentally unstable. The American criminal justice system is so tied up with endless proceduralism that dangerous and violent criminals treat the justice system as a joke; and they’re often right. Abusive and drug-addicted parents are allowed to retain custody of their children, dooming these youngsters to deprivation, pain, and, far too often, death. School systems, paralyzed by bureaucratic red tape, are unable to protect the great majority of their young wards by taking effective disciplinary actions against the tiny minority of violent students. It is politically and socially unacceptable to take any action, even life-saving action, if that would appear intolerant toward politically influential subcultures. San Francisco spent years of bitter debate on closing its gay bathhouses while hundreds of patrons engaging in indiscriminate, anonymous sexual activity, were being infected with the deadly AIDS virus every night. “I’m entitled. I don’t have to earn it. It’s mine as a matter of right because I’m an American - a citizen of the richest, most powerful nation on earth.” Who do you suppose pays for the quality of life we enjoy? I am referring to schools, parks, monuments, museums, highways, and bridges. Every time we use one of these facilities we spend money, although we are seldom charged for it. Even when we do pay a toll or fee, it rarely covers the cost of usage. Are we willing to pay the price necessary to obtain clean air, clean water, and “good” land use? If we are not so willing, who is? We have become shortsighted and selfish, acting against our own long
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