OUR VIEW: The freedom to be stupid

Let us start by saying that anytime you straddle two wheels, you ought to have a helmet strapped to your fat head. It’s just good sense. Not wearing one, even on a bicycle, is stupid, dangerous and a good way to see what that sense looks like as it spills onto the pavement. We feel the same way about seat belts. It’s just good sense to wear one. Sure, everyone has heard of someone who was saved by not wearing a seat belt, but those are anecdotes. Statistically, if you are in a crash and you don’t have on a seat belt, you die.
That being said, is it the state’s job to keep us from doing stupid things? The state, county nor town has no business making up laws that prevent us from not acting in our own best interests. At its best, such laws are naked paternalism, at worst they portend the end of all individual rights. Look around and you’ll see it’s happening in great waves and rushes. First they came for the smokers. Then they came for the unhelmeted. Even now they are coming for the cola drinkers and cookie eaters.
What’s next? Stiff fines for those who refuse to swallow a baby Aspirin each morning? Increased taxes for those who don’t get the full eight hours sleep each night? Jail time for anyone caught text messaging during a dinner date? OK, we support that last one.   
The point we would make, which we’ve made before, is that all of our rights are meaningless if we cannot choose to do unwise, wrong or unbeneficial things.
Safety has won out over freedom. And yes, freedom sometimes comes in the guise of some dummy shooting down the road just a few feet from a sure death. But other times it comes in the guise of someone speaking out against an unpopular war or an unpopular health care plan. Sometimes it comes in the guise of a group of guys starting a computer company in their garage. Other times it comes in the guise of a group of guys starting a very bad yet soon to be terribly overpaid rock band in their garage.
It’s a nice sentiment, the helmet law. It seems to say that Wythe County cares about you and your safety. But nice sentiments sometimes make a mockery of the delicious air of true liberty. Any government that would trade rights for safety could care less about freedoms being trampled.
Wytheville officials, we’re sure, are proud of standing up to protect residents from themselves. We would be more proud if they would have not meddled in affairs where government doesn’t belong. (We would note that we won’t fault Sheriff Doug King for favoring a county measure similar to the town’s since his job is about keeping the public safe). And don’t talk about the “yeah, buts.” We understand that people should be wearing helmets. We just feel that they shouldn’t have to under penalty of the law. At some point, individuals have to take responsibility for their decisions. Freedom and responsibility go together that way. At least they did, before liberty was just another word that reminds us of the past.