Editor;
I t is always interesting to read the words of those who think that America is about absolute equality. Nothing on this earth is equal, not a plant, or a tree or an animal.
I wonder where Mr. Brown deduced the idea the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law guarantee this “principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities?” (quote from Oxford Dictionary). The Constitution guarantees equal opportunity. It does not offer everyone the same social status, economic position or fairness. It offers justice which is not the same as total equality.
Egalitarian rights are impossible and he knows it. We live in a world filled with corruption, scandal, deceit, greed and avarice and that’s just in Washington, D.C. and Denver. There is no ability to achieve the equality Mr. Brown thinks is so possible.
Instead, I wondered about this scenario. Let us assume for the sake of the discussion Mr. Brown has a gaudy house painted brilliant yellow and he raises thousands of chickens whose manure causes odiferous emanations to waft over onto his neighbor’s property.
I wondered, when they went to him and complained about his gaudy house hurting their eyes and the odor making their noses run, would he immediately want to paint his house and get ride of his chickens? I imagined he would be indignant at the audacity of his neighbor’s complaint regarding how he lives. He would be justified in that emotional response.
Yet, he puts forth the challenge that his neighbors do not have the right to light their property as they see fit. He is offended these neighbors have the audacity to live as they please. Furthermore, he feels abused because they do!
I find his egalitarian argument one sided. As long as it benefits Mr. Brown’s definition of equality, it’s the best idea since the invention of the wheel. Anything else and he would be demanding legal relief as he intoned in his comments regarding Dark Skies.
None of us in a Democratic Society have equal anything. Instead, we should seek and then be satisfied with consensus. Mr. Brown wants a Socialist society where a small number determine what all the rest of us are told what we want. Mr. Brown wants to be one of tellers and not one of the recipients of his profound wisdom.
Dark Skies is directly related to individual property rights being subjugated by a few, (Mr. Bradburn a non-resident of Custer County at that) for no real benefit to those property owners and with the legal teeth as a definite detriment. It has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with inequality for the many by the few. No thank you, sir! I reject your argument as flawed and self-serving. I reject Dark Skies for the same reasons.
Larry Luikart
Rural Custer County