President John Adams is credited with having said "We are a nation of laws, not men." As a young man, I struggled to understand the scope of that statement. Youth, it would seem, blinds you to the understanding of anything greater than self. Time, as always, brings age, and age, sometimes, brings wisdom.
crime
The nature of law, as we have always recognized it, was to create a peaceful harmony amongst people living in close proximity. While freedom is manifest from the Almighty, laws are created by man to create a social construct. Succinctly, in an organized society, you are and should be free to do whatever you want, so long as it doesn't hinder someone else's same right to do whatever THEY want. You can walk around you house naked, if you want. Going to Walmart that way, on the other hand, will get you arrested. You desire to do without clothes gets trumped by everybody else's rights NOT
The best government, it is said, is that which is centered closest to the governed. The Framers understood this. That's why the entirety of the Constitution is based upon the idea of "enumerated powers". Remember that from Civics class? It basically means that if a power or responsibility isn't specifically set forth in the document as the milieu of the Federal government, then said government has no say in it. Does that sound like the America we live in today?
As a governed people, it is up to us to decide what is legal and what is not, isn't it? In a representative republic, the people at large decide what is a crime and what is not. Or so we have been told since grade school. Look around. Does it seem that way to you in today's America?
By request, this next article is about crime in America. But is crime really the problem? It's always been around since the beginning of mankind. Purveyors of crime, like Billy the Kid, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone and the like have a storied history in this country making them quasi-folk heroes that even Hollywood took notice of. Pablo Escobar is as close to a national icon as you get in Columbia. Crime is bad, right?