Seat Belt Requirements

Imagine this: you're sitting at your dining room table having a quiet dinner. The television is playing at a moderate level in the background, but you're not listening. You are just having a peaceful, relaxing dinner with grilled beef, bean sprouts, corn on the cob, a buttered roll, and a glass of sweet tea (yes, you're in the south). You finish your meal except for the bean sprouts and start to wipe your mouth and hands of excess food. Suddenly, I burst into your house with a fully loaded double barrel shotgun equipped with a laser sight and tell you that your bean sprouts are healthful and can contribute to proper cellular respiration causing your circulatory system to funtion on a more efficient level. I tell you that you must eat these scrumptious bean sprouts or I shall be forced to use my shotgun on a part of your body. You stare at me, horrified and about to soil your pants, and, after a pause for reflection, you eat the bean sprouts. Did you really have to eat the bean sprouts? I mean, seriously, you run 5 miles three times a week, drink a gallon of water a day, and do yoga for your mental health. The answer to that question is no. If you don't want to eat bean sprouts in your own home and would rather throw them out with the orange rinds and empty milk cartons, that's your right. Why then does the government tell you that you must wear a seatbelt in the car while you are driving? How is it that we the people have given our government the right to tell us what to do inside a vehicle for which we have paid or are paying our hard-earned, tax-reduced paychecks?

This is a great example of how we want the comfort of knowing that, if we accidently hit someone or if some crazy person decides to attempt to end our lives, all parties will be a little more safe because we all have a reinforced nylon strap holding us fast to our seats to prevent whiplash, ejection, or the deformation of the skull because of blunt force. Provided the wreck doesn't land the engine in our bodies somewhere, this device will save our lives, and you can take that to the bank because statistics have proven through the number of lives saved in the use of these ingenious inventions. Regardless of safety and prevention, our job as individuals is to protect ourselves, our families, and our friends. Individuals and private organizations should promote the use of safety devices. Does using government force to compel people to "click-it or ticket" work? Yes, on those who are already responsible or have a desire not to incur financial suffering for not performing a two second safety precaution. The fact of the matter is that amazing principle called Natural Selection works in this case.

We as citizens and individuals have a duty not only to take care of ourselves and the ones whom we love but also to put citizens in office that will look after us in a way that promotes freedom while protecting our borders and those liberties which we are given. Any law that inhibits an individual's liberties just to prevent crimes and death is opening the door for laws that will eventually eliminate our personal freedoms.