maginations run as wild as public policies in the land of WeKnowBetter

This is a story about an imaginary town near the geographic center of the United States. By all accounts, it’s a great place to live, with national publications touting its quality of life.

Some people have advocated a name change for the town.
The leading contenders are WannaBeBoulder, WannaBePortland, Don’tWannaBeSt.Louis and Don’tWannaBeKansasCity. A small but vocal group is advocating WeAin’tNoLawrence. A small, very concerned group is talking about renaming the town WeBeHypocrites.

The funny thing about WeKnowBetter is that, for most of its existence, it evolved by going with the flow. It wasn’t an overly planned community, yet it somehow managed to be well regarded.

It’s a good place to raise kids. It’s relatively safe. It’s relatively clean. It has good schools (by the way, they teach evolution). It has arts. It has athletics. The shopping is decent. The food is good.
Not much planning — basically some dumb luck and lots of love. Unfortunately, the town of WeKnowBetter is starting to be smothered by its love.

Most recently, the WeKnowBetter City Council decided to leap over the edge and tell people where they can and cannot smoke legal substances made of tobacco. While numerous businesses acknowledge that many people find tobacco smoke disturbing and uncomfortable, and thus decided to make their establishments smoke-free in order to make more profit, WeKnowBetter’s council decided to compromise freedom and tell its citizens they have no choice. Some questioned whether this was simply “too much government.”
WeKnowBetter is a progressive community. It supports tolerance, including tolerating town folk smoking other things. I guess it’s OK if what you’re smoking comes from Mexico but not from R.J. Reynolds.

WeKnowBetter strives to be a walkable community and promotes alternative forms of human transportation. Yet, apparently two legs are not good enough to walk to a bar with a no smoking policy versus one that allows smoking.
My favorite trait in WeKnowBetter is the fact that the very people who are so self-righteous regarding the choice of whether to smoke are the first to cry for a lack of government interference in reproductive health. You’re either for freedom or against it. The government either interferes or it doesn’t.

In WeKnowBetter, it’s OK to control freedom with regard to how you use your land. In WeKnowBetter, it’s OK to allow the government to intrude on some things but complain about the FBI doing its job. In WeKnowBetter, it’s OK to complain about government interfering with personal liberties but not to complain about government interfering with, well, personal liberties.

In WeKnowBetter, they talk about diversity because it’s politically correct but don’t practice it.
Many in the town of WeKnowBetter are tired. Why? Because they know better. They know that for every erosion of civil liberty that occurs, regardless of how small, the slope continues to slide.
Those who chose to advocate for the smoking policy in WeKnowBetter lost their right to complain about the federal government’s efforts to seek more information on terrorism under the Patriot Act. Those who supported the right for an adult citizen in this country to choose a legal vice have lost their right to control choice and its freedom. Those who supported a smoking policy that told people what they could do on their own private property lost the right to do what they wish to do on their own private property. Otherwise, WeKnowBetter should change the town’s name to WeAreHypocrites.
Of course, this is an imaginary town, and no one would be so hypocritical. No one would give over their freedoms, and nowhere would there be four councilmen who support walking to school but can’t understand that people could get on their own two feet and choose where to go to avoid a smoky room.