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From: gt@hplvle.UUCP (gt)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Of Rights and Privileges
Message-ID: <2900002@hplvle.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jul-84 20:07:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplvle.2900002
Posted: Fri Jul 20 20:07:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Jul-84 03:32:13 EDT
Lines: 56
Nf-ID: #N:hplvle:2900002:000:2786
Nf-From: hplvle!gt    Jul 20 16:07:00 1984

Various hot issues in net.auto sooner or later get around to this
whole notion of driving a car being a privilege rather than a right.
The thing I really don't understand is why so many people are so
determined to give away as many rights as they possibly can.  It 
seems like an incantation to soothe the soul of spineless followers
when they meekly say, "but that's a privilege not a right."  Then I
guess we are all suppossed to respond, "Oh, my, I forgot, I'm sorry,
please don't get mad or tell on me.  I'll be good and do everything
exactly as I'm told."  

It gets nauseating after awhile.

What exactly are our rights?  Do I have the right to live?  Do I have
the right to support myself?  Do I have the right to try and function
in society?  Do I have a right to be happy?  Do I have a right to do
as I please without harming or endangering others?  Who knows?

But let's talk about cars (and the like) for a moment.  When the
automobile first went into production it was considered a luxury item.
It was obviously a privilege of wealth.  When H. Ford came along and 
increased availability the automobile became a privilege of having a
decent paying steady job.  Somewhere in the late forties and the 
early fifties the automobile became much more than a luxury and a
privilige... it became a necessity, at least out west.  

For better of for worse, America is inextricably bound up with the 
automobile.  The point is so obvious that I feel foolish even trying
to state it, much less justify it.  Unless you live in a large, compact
Eastern city I think you would find it very difficult to live a "normal"
life without some type of motorized transportation.  Granted, there are
a few dedicated folks who go everywhere and do everything on their
bicycle or skateboard and damn us lazy infidels who foul the air they
are gasping for.  

How can anybody seriously believe that operating a motor vehicle is
a privilege rather than a right?  Granted, some lesser legal body
may have decided to say that it is thus and so but that does not
make it binding, nor does it make it constitutional.  The RIGHT
of driving should be taken away from people who abuse it to
the detriment of others just as the right of walking around free
in society is taken away from those who abuse it.  This DOES NOT 
MEAN THAT DRIVING IS A PRIVILEGE ANY MORE THAN IT MEANS THAT WALKING
THE STREETS IS A PRIVILEGE.

If our full speed rush to increase restrictive regulations and to
throw away any and all rights continues than we shall receive a
harsh indictment from our children whom we sought to protect and
instead turned over to a totalitarian government.



                   George Tatge
		   HP Loveland Instrument Div.
		   ihnp4!hpfcla!hplvla!gt

p.s. flame away, I'm off to Siggraph anyway.