Column: Stop the destructiveness, respect the law

"Repeat the lie over and over until it becomes truth..." -- Paul Josef Goebbels - Propaganda Minister, The Third Reich

I've never had writer's block. Perhaps it's because having been in politics, I've developed the habit pf always being ready to say something. But today's column is really a challenge.

Ever since the so-called presidential election, I've been brought down to depths so low that I don't really want to write, and yet, I feel the need to unload in case some of you citizens are as disgusted as I am and need some reinforcement.

Curmudgeons like me are thought to be pessimists, but nothing is further from the truth. In reality, we're hopeless optimists who always look for and expect the best in everyone and when we fail to find it we take it harder than most folks. Should know better.

As of this point in time, even the confirmation of George W. Bush as president, assuming he survives forthcoming court challenges, won't heal the societal wounds I see as an outgrowth of this entire election exercise. What a disgraceful performance by lawyer-politicians, the media, and the so-called Supreme Court in Florida. Our kids have now learned beyond doubt that the end justifies the means with lawyer-politicians. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Where are the judges and lawyers of 40 years ago who loved and respected the law? I knew some of them. Those guys wouldn't have dreamed of using their benches to blatantly write new law. That was the legislature's job.

As a matter of fact, even as late as the 1960s, I had a lawyer on my staff who worshipped the law. Eldon L. Means. He would never have considered dirty tricks or prostituting the law for power or money. He regarded his station in life to be a special trust. That's the way it was in those days.

What happened? All the hippie malcontents of the '60s whose minds weren't totally blown on drugs ducked into college and became lawyers, psychologists or sociologists. Having failed to topple the establishment through insurrection, many decided to become government or public interest lawyers. Destroy from within. A Trojan horse.

You wouldn't believe the number of lawyers who are on government doles one way or another, many providing free legal services to the so-called poor. And we taxpayers pay the bill.

Character assassination? That was unheard of in political contests. Now it's standard procedure, like bringing up Bush's "Driving under the influence" charge which occurred some 26 years prior to his campaign for president. And what a job James Carville's boys did on Florida's Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, because she tried to uphold Florida election law as it had been written by the legislature. Carville, the ragin' Cajun, is considered trash by my old Cajun friends. They'll use him for alligator bait if they get the chance.

Now, why can't we leave each other alone? Why do people who don't eat meat want to prevent everyone else from eating meat? What is this insatiable driving force to control others? How about smoking? No one forces any of us to smoke. I join the majority of you citizens who want smoke-free buildings and working environments.

But now there's a move afoot in an eastern city to prevent smokers from smoking outside in public parks. C'mon, this is nothing but harassment for the pure joy of harassment.

And how about the bumper crop of psychologists, sociologists and so-called behavioral scientists inundating us with political correctness? There isn't a bonafide scientist in the lot! If we don't agree, we're called mean spirited, homophobes, racists, chauvinist pigs, unenlightened, uncaring, greedy, and Lord knows what else. These charlatans change their minds as often as the ocean tides, in a continuing effort to make names (and money) for themselves.

And the media loves anything new and never demands genuine scientific proof.

The damage that's being done to the core values of our republic by those who don't believe in absolute values will soon backfire, and the resulting explosion will be tragic. We've got to give each other some space! We've got to stop beating up on each other verbally. We don't have to understand each other but we must tolerate everyone's right to live as they want to live as long as they don't infringe on other peoples' rights.

I've lived through one world war and three undeclared wars but none of those begin to rival the destructive forces of jealousy, class hatred, and intolerance now being systematically unleashed upon us by our own intellectual elite.

Bob Thomas is a Carson City businessman, local curmudgeon and former member of the Carson City School Board and Nevada State Assembly.