I have wrote before that liberty is not easy, and we all know that it is not free. However what a lot of people fail to realize is that liberty is also a bitter pill. A bitter pill, but not a toxic one. To truly embrace liberty, I must also be willing to allow the same types of liberty to others.
This often times means allowing others to act in a way that I find immoral, unethical, and personally reprehensible. However, as long as they do not violate my rights, or anyone else's rights then by all means allow them to do as they wish, it is their life, their conscience, and their soul.
Gun owners in particular, it has been said, don't care whether you personally decide to own a gun or not, if you decide not to, then do not infringe on the rights of those that choose to do so. That is your personal choice and you are free to make it, just don't try and force your beliefs on us.
Drug usage is the same way. Use what you want to, when you want to, how you want to, but your using had better not infringe on anyone else's rights. Get behind the wheel of a vehicle, you deserve what you get, if not worse. OD, don't expect my unlawfully gained tax dollars to pay for your lifesaving medications.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. There are plenty of choices and lifestyles that I find wrong for many different reasons, but that does not give me the right to say that they are wrong and should be forbidden, banned, outlawed, etc...
Let each person choose their own way in life so long as it does not keep you from choosing yours. If whatever someone else chooses infringes on your rights, then you have the right to do something about it. If what someone chooses does not interfere with your rights but only enrages you morally, ethically, etc... then if you are a liberty lover you will allow them to do as they please, choose what label fits you best: socialist, fascist, hatemonger, etc... Just remember if you feel you are right in taking someone elses rights, then what stops someone else from taking yours. This is the difference between the bitter pill and the toxic pill.
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This ties in very closely with what I have said on numerous occasions, and even pretty recently in my Examiner column.
In order to be consistent, you have to realize that other people have rights that you probably won't like. And you have to stand up for their rights if you don't want to be hypocritical.
If someone else infringes on your rights, you have the right, and possibly even the obligation to yourself, to make the infringement stop, but you have no right to push beyond that point.
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