Editor, “Government is essentially the negation of liberty. If we fail to challenge government at every turn, there will be no liberty remaining for us to defend when the government tries to negate it,”
- Judge Andrew Napolitano.
My son has learned a valuable lesson about government.
He lost his job. The reason he lost his job is that our local city council outlawed the posting of signs deemed not acceptable in city limits. My son was the young man who waved the AT&T sign on Highway 144 and Exchange Street. Apparently, our local government could not figure out a way to tax or extort more money for the privilege of waving this little sign in his hands.
Why do our local councilmen and women believe they have the right to prevent free men and women from exercising their right to wave a sign on private property? It is probably the example set by all government agencies that feel their God-given wisdom is so superior to the rest of us, they feel they can impose their will using violence, or the threat of violence, to impose their beliefs or desires on the rest of us.
As with all regulations that limit your liberty, the city council cites safety as the primary reason for enforcing this ordinance. We are losing all our God-given and hard-fought freedoms in the name of safety. The federal government can monitor your cell phone in the name of safety. It can lock you in your home in the name of safety. It can even arrest, detain and kill you without a trial in the name of safety.
Remember when we used to say, “It’s a free country.” You never hear that expression anymore. That is because it is no longer a free country. You have given your freedom up for “safety.” As Benjamin Franklin once said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Thank you, Richmond Hill City Council, for teaching my son that, in this city and in this country, we are no longer free.

Respectfully Yours,
— Robert Eloi,
Richmond Hill