Respect for, and adherence to, the law are good outcomes for our Republic....I was thinking this was too obvious to need to be stated.....
I agree. It was, indeed, too obvious to be stated. I appreciate the value of adhering to the law for its own sake. I took that into consideration and was looking a little deeper.
We continue examine if there is some rationale for the law, some other objective beyond rote allegiance to it. If we didn't, we'd still have people standing on main street in stocks for cursing. That's what I was looking for, the underlying objective. When laws don't make sense, we change them or focus them or clarify them. If we locked up all the people who meet your standards for treason, that would be a helluva lot of people. And I don't know what that would accomplish beyond the tidy tick marks in the ledger. Because it's an option under the law isn't a good enough reason for incarcerating people, particularly herds of people.
This goes beyond having a big mouth and poor judgment
Even if that is the case, does incarceration protect us? If there's a danger, it's the danger of their words being heard. Incarceration doesn't keep people from speaking out, does it? |
