by Elton Gahr

Created on: January 28, 2009   Last Updated: May 01, 2009

How much control over our everyday lives do we want to give over to the government? This is a question that has been asked since the beginning of time. Is a bit of safety worth the price of freedom? Yet often in the small situations we do not think it over this well. The thought of the mandatory use of hands free devices is one of these. The idea itself is good enough, a simple device that could save lives, but the existence of the law itself ignores several factors.

Safety measures have been enforced by our government for years. The inclusion of safety belt, airbags and many other safety devices have been put into our cars because of government regulation, so why not this step? There are several differences. The most obvious is were the burden is put on. The forced inclusion of seat belts is in a law that is enforced on the manufacturer.. They have not stopped there though. Our government has gone too far. Cigarettes are taxed because they are bad for us, guns are restricted because someone might use them inappropriately, and some places have even banned certain types of food because it has too many calories. Hands free devices are the next step, but they are certainly not the final step.

This is not a question of safety then. There are already laws against reckless driving. It is a question of personal freedom and personal responsibility and laws that deal with those who fail that responsibility. No one has a problem with the person who uses a gun inappropriately being arrested, and no one would have a problem with charging a driver who allowed himself to become distracted with reckless driving if he was indeed driving recklessly.

The problem is that it is impossible to eliminate all distractions from the care. If the case for making mandatory hands free devices is that it will make the road more safe, then what about people who put on makeup in their car, or dig around on the floor for the CD? What about the mother who is turned halfway around in her seat talking to the kids in the back seat while on the freeway, or the guy driving down the road with his newspaper open across the steering wheel. Do we pass laws to say you can't eat while driving? Perhaps a law that outlaws picking your nose in traffic because it distracts other drivers.

We cannot allow ourselves to go down this road any farther. Each step we go in the assumption that everything dangerous must be specifically legislated against is a step towards totalitarianism. There are many people who can drive just fine without needing a hands free device, and many who should never have been allowed on the road no matter how many distractions you remove from their car.

The citizens of this country have been treated more and more like children by the government every year and as this happens more and more of the citizens want laws passed against others. There is nothing wrong with a young child running to mommy and daddy because Jack hit me, but as a nation of adults we must learn to be responsible for ourselves and expect others to do the same.

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