pan6467

When I was young I used to steal baseball card packs and comic books. In fact I probably have 15,000 baseball cards and 75% were from me stealing from the Dairy Mart and Quick Chek C stores. I no longer have the comics, but I figure probably 75% of the ones I had were ones I had stolen.

I knew stealing was wrong, but I didn't care. I wanted them, I knew how to stuff them in pockets and what not and best of all I got them free.

Then one day I was about 12, I went to actually buy a comic book and a pack of baseball cards at Dairy Mart, mom was treating.

I looked at the prices, they were far more than they had been.

Mom said, no the prices had gone up too much.

The sales lady (whom was a regular victim and easy to steal off of) watched my mom and I. She smiled and added, "well prices go up when people steal, because in the end someone has to pay for them."

Did the lady know? Did my mom and the lady set me up? I know I have NEVER stolen anything since. I learned a most valuable lesson that day.

Laws are written to protect the citizens of communities, counties, states, countries. If the government deems something illegal, it believes it does so for the benefit of the people (in a society such as ours... in theory).

In a society like ours, we have a choice, we can either follow the law and never change it..... such as 4 year presidencies, or we can disagree, find government officials who will champion our cause and try to change the laws... we may not find any government official to champion it and have to try to get it on a ballot or petition against it, or have peaceful rallies and demonstrations wanting to change those laws.

If we just choose to IGNORE the law, and we allow others to, we are in effect committing crimes and putting ourselves and our ideas above the laws and above the processes to change the laws.

Now, we can play games and semantics and try to dispel our crimes by saying "well chewing gum in the left hand side of your mouth on a full moon in Nowhere, Maine is illegal and that isn't enforced so obviously we have some stupid laws on the books, or should it be enforced... and if we don't enforce that law then why should we enforce any laws?"

Well, granted that law was probably written when bubble gum first came out in the town of Nowhere and some fool out on a night's walk was chewing gum in the left side of his mouth and went to blow a bubble, accidentally spit out the gum and hit the mayor's wife in the eye. Admittedly, it is a stupid law and over time it may have been forgotten. Perhaps, more important crimes like murder, theft, etc took precedence.

So government looked around and said we have to classify our laws. So they set about and made classifications called misdemeanors and felonies. Then they classified them and put forth the punishments based on severity of the crime as they saw it. You can't put someone in jail for the rest of their life because on a moonlit night they chewed gum on the left side, but if you see it and you know the law you may fine them. Whereas, someone who kills another deserves more than just a fine, they need to be taken out of society for a while.

If the Federal government believes it is easier to control diseases coming into this country, provides a safer environment for it's citizens and is in the nation's best interest as a whole to have a law on how people can immigrate (for example), they pass the law, the set forth the punishment and classification, then it is a law one must follow.

If one doesn't like it, they can petition to put it on ballots and vote to change it, find politicians willing to change it and elect them, or hold demonstrations against it until politicians decide it is in the best interest to change it.... and so on (we live in a country where we CAN change laws, in a legal way). But if we choose to ignore the law and do nothing to change it except say, "it's stupid and shouldn't be a law" then we are criminals as we have committed a crime.

So to follow with the example of oooo say immigration..... if I know Sweden has a law telling me how to emigrate there and I choose to ignore it and go to Sweden and live anyway, because I do not like Sweden's law and I want things MY way. I have broken the law, I am there ILLEGALLY and I should be punished. The first thing I did when I entered Sweden was disrespect their law, so why should they give me a chance to continue to thumb my nose at more of their laws and if they do not punish me then they cannot punish the next person because that would be favoritism. But soon, Sweden could be over run by people thumbing their nose at Sweden's laws and picking and choosing what laws they wish to follow. So to prevent this, Sweden must make sure they enforce the law to the best of their ability and citizenry's desire.

If someone knows there are ways to come to America and not break a law but refuse to and instead just come and live, they are breaking the law of this country and are here ILLEGALLY and thus should be punished. The first thing someone did in the US when they came over not following immigration laws, was break a law and disrespect our country. We should not give them a second chance or allow them to stay when an ILLEGAL act is their very first action here. If you do not like the law, I gave ways you can work to change it.... but until it is changed it is the law, the majority of the country right now wishes to continue it as a law and from polls I have seen, wishes to have it enforced.

Until you change it, ignoring it and simply saying "well I don't like it so fuck it" does not show that you care to change it using legal means. To negatively label and talk down to others who do put a value on that law, does not create a positive environment but a negative environment, divides more and makes the issue bigger and in effect quite possibly worse and beyond repair, than if you had just worked to change it.

Which last I checked in this country we are free to do and laws do get changed faster when people create positive environments for change and not negative ones.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"