Updates for Saturday, October 18th [2003]

The past week has left me questioning further the nature of the government.

In my first week of work, I was enformed that before I could work the store by myself, I must pass a class. This "class" is part of a government requirement which surely I was desirous to learn more towards the nature of. Upon such discovery, I was shocked.

It is called the "OLCC", and it controls the way all traders do business, especially by the way of alcohol, and tobacco. In my day, we had no need for such measures. I see it as being only a source of problems, as was evident by the classroom.

I went to the class last night and asked the speaker of the classroom what right the government has to restrict the fair and honest trade of civilians as such. He informed me that if I want to pass the course to get my license, I must sit down and be quiet. Never have I seen free people so belligerant to potential defiances of government abuse. I've noticed this trend of elaborate certificates & licenses and I cannot imagine it is anything other than a means to control the conduct of peaceful civilians. I did as they told but I reserved this as another point of complaint for my letter I plan on writing to Congress.

Since when was America a place where people told liquor traders who they could or couldn't trade with? Or tobacco, for that matter? Daniel informs me that many other substances, such as opiates and hemp (hemp, of which, I envision would be as important at cotton or flax... if flax could be smoked, would we ban it too?) are also both illegalized by the federal and statehood authorities for their potentially negative uses.

This practice is absurd, and I came back from the class after being certified to enquire with Ms. Everson if we in fact enforce these policies. "Sure," she said, "we enforce all these kinds of policies. It's part of your job." I pleaded with her to learn the sanity of not participating in such a insane government programme, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. She told me, "I don't want to be fined or sued because of your philosophical problems with doing it, just do it, it's what I pay you to do. I will continue to hire people to enforce these policies, personally, I don't really think it's a problem".

We will see about that.

If that wasn't an epiphany enough for the week, I learned what has become of our Post Office. We have maintained the postal roads past their usefulness. In my day, we thought of it as a personal and military necessity. Post roads were important to carry such deliveries. But I did not forsee a present where letters may be sent over the Enternet, or where private carries could easily do the job of public servicement, nor did I forsee how it would be a mechanism for the government to expand, to domineer and filander, into the taxpayer's pockets. I read a report on the "televizion" in the living room that reported the financial loses of the Post Office, and how it loses many dollars. I would've thought that once the Post Office's necessities were exposed as convienences that it would be privatized. Forced into competitive trade.

Instead, as I found out through some research using the Enternet and some books from the Library, it was used as an excuse for the city councils and states to maintain roadway ownership and to pry into the livelyhood of each citizen by monitoring their parcels and addresses and any "suspicious" activities. Knowing that this government is not necessarily the same one I knew of before, I was wary of it's potential abuses, but now am moreso. What prevents abuse?

This might be a good question, too, for my later letter to congress. I will continue investigating.

Oh, and I got more eggs and chicken and steak this week with my last allowance Daniel would afford me than I had ever in one day had in my possession. With these new "refridgerators" I can store these foods without them going bad, by keeping them cool, and unexposed to the elements with wrappings of "plastic". I analyzed the fibers of the "plastic" but could not understand what it was made of. I wondered if it might not make good clothing, or perhaps, a good substance to rework into other useful things. I noticed a package in a cupboard which said "plastic forks", took one out, and it too seemed to share a similar strange composite.

Plastics are amazing. I will look more into them.

Your amazed & shocked friend & thusly forever humble srvnt.,

- Thomas Jefferson