Losing our freedoms

One of the greatest speeches of all time was delivered by US President Ronald Reagan, when leaving after eight years in office. It has particular relevance for NZ at this time.

Talking of the relationship between government and its people, he said that “the people tell government what to do, and not the reverse. The government is the car, the people drive it, and give instructions where to go, by what route, and how fast. We should also never forget that as government regulations expand, then liberty contracts.”

With increasing undemocratic policies, rules, regulations, and seemingly uncontrolled government spending of taxpayers’ hard-earned income, we in NZ are fast losing our freedoms and our long-established multicultural way of life. A system that has been so admired around the world.

As a nation, surely it is time for us to once again base our actions, not on the latest fashionable political impulses, but what is proper and necessary to regain our historical freedoms of enterprise, selfexpression, and democracy, with everyone equal under the law. Hylton Le Grice

Remuera