I refer to the latest installment of abuse of power by Omaha’s supposed public servants and the smoking ban. I will revisit some recent events.
Because of the mayor’s and City Council’s fiscal irresponsibility, Omaha feels the need to conquer the little town to the west, Elkhorn, and usurp their control and funding, in order to increase Omaha’s tax base.
Because of poor test scores and fiscal irresponsibility Omaha Public Schools feel the need to dominate the smaller local school districts thus increasing the test score pool, which are higher than OPS, and increasing their monetary coffers.
Now our exalted public leaders are focusing on honest business owners and their clientele. The clientele that I am referring to are those individuals who partake of a completely legal substance, cigarettes. While I write this I am reminded of stories from a similar episode in America’s past, the early 1900s. It was known as Prohibition.
I cannot stress enough the harm that government is doing taking away the rights of the business owner to conduct his legal trade as he sees fit.
A definition for communism is as follows: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
In other words, an authoritarian party, such as the mayor and City Council, claiming to progress towards a smoke-free environment, determines that since some people don’t use certain goods, namely cigarettes, no one should. Thus they take away your choice.
Make no mistake, this is not just about smoking, this is about control, this is about the loss of choice, this is about the loss of liberty, this is about the loss of freedom.
Randall A. Reichert
Omaha
Omaha
