Dependent on the bully?

(This was submitted as my Clovis News Journal column for this week, but was rejected, so I am free to post it here instead. The air base is totally off-limits as a topic for me to write about in the paper.)

This area has an addiction and Cannon Air Force Base is the drug. Just look at what happened when the community was threatened with having the drug taken away. The resulting uproar was what you would expect of an addict faced with losing his supply.

As a libertarian I respect the right of an addict to use any substance he wants as long as he harms no one else. That means not stealing to support the habit, and not attacking anyone while using the addiction as an excuse. As long as he harms no one else it is none of my business what he chooses to do with himself, even if it means destroying himself in the process. [Note: I didn't really expect that the majority of CNJ readers would connect the dots that in this case, the government is stealing the money to "pay for" the air base, but I was trying to avoid mentioning, once again, that taxation is theft.]

I will still point out that addictions are not healthy and try to talk the addict out of his self-destructive behavior just because I care, but the final choice is always up to the addict.

Would breaking the addiction really be fatal to this area as so many seem to think? Or, as is usually the case, would it seem much less critical after the withdrawal symptoms had run their course? Wouldn't there be a freedom in not feeling that your survival is tied to someone else's benevolence? I think there would be. Would the community survive? Yes. There would be changes and adjustments, and life would go on. Don't ever let anyone make you think you need to beg them to keep you alive and healthy.

Personally, I think this community has an inferiority complex that is not realistic. There are a lot of good people here, and a lot of opportunities. It's easy for each of us to become a better person and make even more opportunities. Stop letting the few bad guys who do the majority of the bad things be your defining example of the area. Outshine them. Then maybe you won't tie your self worth to something that is really not within your control.

If it is what you want to do, embrace and celebrate the air base, but don't let it hold you hostage and don't let it bully you.