Sacred right?
On Nov. 15 a Voices letter titled “Remove barriers to voting to make casting ballots easier” makes the case that there is no need for someone to present a state-issued ID when voting in order to prove who they are rather than being, in fact, an incapacitated relative. I would like to concentrate on one statement the writer presented as the thesis for his argument, “ … realize that voting in America is not a privilege, but a sacred right … ” Another sacred, God-given right is for self-preservation for one’s self and family. This was spelled out in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution namely, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
My question to the letter writer would be, should we hold these same standards when someone is purchasing a firearm? Does he feel that someone should not be able to walk into the gun department of their local Wal-Mart and purchase a fully automatic rifle off the shelf, no questions asked? Reasonable people would question the sanity of this ideal but then again why would this “sacred right” not be absolute?
Mark Watkins
South Bend
markE watkins 