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Laws have gone too far for a moderate, tolerant society

Your front page writer paints a horrific, one-sided picture of the repeal of a new and draconian law

Your front page writer paints a horrific, one-sided picture of the repeal of a new and draconian law as if it will bring about anarchy (Chasing drunks, News Dec. 14).

I’m very glad a judge decided it was unconstitutional to rip someone’s life apart over a couple of drinks – maybe even one pint of beer for a lightweight person. That’s gone way beyond getting truly drunk drivers off the road.

Consider that the slogan “zero tolerance” also means “utter intolerance”. Is that an attitude to be proud of? Any virtue carried to an extreme becomes a vice.

What has happened to our ideals of a tolerant, moderate society? What has happened to the freedom to live one’s life as a unique individual?

How many silly, myopic laws will we pass regimenting ourselves into ever stricter “acceptable norms” before we realize we are creating a dictatorial police state where even expressing independent thought is a culpable offence?

In the midst of abundance, and utopia within striking distance, we create harm, inequity, scarcity, mistrust, bad feeling and fear. More and more we live in fear of government, corporations, the police and each other – because they are all trying to run everybody else’s life.

The Buffalo Springfield song  For What It’s Worth says it best:

Paranoia strikes deep.

Into your life it will creep.

It begins when you’re always afraid.

Step out of line, and the men come and take you away.

Craig Carmichael

Victoria