Gainesville should encourage cover-up but not mandate it

By Joe Cwik

Arturo Corso is right: Republicans believe in less government and we also believe in limited government, just like the Founding Fathers.

We do support government doing and funding those things that only government can do, from national security to health and public safety to building roads and highways. But we want government sticking to its proper role and not overstepping into areas that should be left to private citizens and the private sector.

So in my case, if an official were to require that merchants cover up any magazine covers that young children would be better off not seeing, I would likely not support the effort, certainly not in our current circumstances.

Please note the “require.” To require merchants to take the action would in our current circumstances be an undue intrusion by government on business.

Under certain circumstances, though, I might not oppose a resolution “encouraging” merchants to cover them; there is a big difference between “requiring” and “encouraging. There is also big difference between an ordinance and a resolution.

And from what I read in The Times it was a resolution that proposed encouraging merchants to cover such magazines; not hide them, not ban them, cover them.

Thankfully, Gainesville is not blighted with the kind of businesses that would move many people of both parties to support harsher measures, the kinds of business that Rudy Giuliani cleared from Times Square.

One reason we don’t have such businesses is because of the effort years ago by George Wangemann and others. I am grateful George had the foresight years ago to keep such business blights out of Gainesville.

Joe Cwik, Gainesville
Joe Cwik is a former Chairman of the Hall County Republican Party

Originally published in the Gainesville Times Thursday, October 4, 2007

Thanks Joe for a great letter! (Despite the somewhat misleading headline!)  Here is a reminder of what Republicans think about government regulation and intrusion.

Free people do through self-government what they cannot do as individuals but must do in common. Chief among these are public safety, national security, building bridges, roads and highways; securing America’s borders, and providing education. Self-government must necessarily be restricted in size and reach to protect the rights, dignity and interests of its citizens. All government must be held accountable by informed, responsible, and active citizens and groups. The preservation of self-government itself requires that we protect individual liberty.