The mayor of Glendale, Colo., recently announced the “Year of Freedom,” during which the City Council plans to revoke at least one Glendale statute at every regularly scheduled City Council meeting through next May.
Even as a law-abiding citizen, it seems that I cannot make it a day without violating some law, code or practice, just going about my daily routine. I don't intend to; it’s just unavoidable because there are so many rules.
Many of these restrictions don't provide any significant boon to my safety, freedoms, opportunities or well-being. In fact, many have the opposite effect.
In addition, all of these laws, rules and codes bear some cost to my liberty and that of societies.
Dunafon puts it this way: "Glendale, like every other governmental unit from federal to state to local, adds more and more laws every year. Generally speaking, most laws are proscriptive in nature … they restrain an individual from taking an action and often (make) actions criminal offenses. As the laws pile up, no one ever reviews the existing statutes to see which ones are now obsolete or simply no longer make any sense.”
What a novel concept; it would seem like common sense. Fewer laws lead directly to fewer restrictions, which lessen the size and scope of all governmental bodies and increases an individual's rights and responsibilities — freedom.
If a politician running for office made it a goal to repeal 10 laws that are outdated, ill conceived, poorly implemented, too burdensome or irrelevant, instead of passing a single new law, he or she would earn my respect and my vote. And I believe the public would widely embrace said public servants.
Imagine, if you convinced a minority of office holders to do the same, what a change could be made in a single year and how much representation and influence could be returned to the people.
I am over 40 years old at this point. There has not been one year when I celebrated my birthday that there were fewer laws, regulations, codes and practices on the books than the prior year.
What a great present it would be if, for once in my life, this weren’t the case!
I believe Glendale’s elected leaders have stumbled on to something much larger that should be copied from the smallest community to the largest city across this great state of Florida.
It will only take a few brave men and women to accept this challenge — and we will all be better for it.
Sean Dorsey lives in Laurel Hill.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni @cnbeditor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: GUEST COLUMN: Fewer laws mean more freedom