{"id":2458406,"date":"2020-05-13T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/we-elected-them-for-a-reason\/"},"modified":"2020-05-14T07:31:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T13:31:54","slug":"we-elected-them-for-a-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/we-elected-them-for-a-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"We elected them for a reason"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"46\">\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Our fellow citizens that demonstrate on the assertion that they are being deprived of \u201cliberty\u201d seem in need of a basic civics lesson (perhaps evidence of our decaying educational system.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In any event, a brief primer:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The duty of government \u2014 elected government \u2014 is to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the populace, therefore:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 Prohibition of going 70 mph in a school zone is not taking away your liberty<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 Prohibition of making camp fires in a drought year, in high danger areas, is not taking away your liberty<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 Prohibition of driving certain roads in floods and snow storms is not taking away your liberty<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 Prohibition of certain uses of public lands is not taking away your liberty<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 Prohibition of burning house lights during a blackout in war time is not taking away your liberty<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u2022 And a very long list of other examples \u2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Which brings us to the current public health crisis: prohibitions of certain activity, or requirements for pursuing such activity, are needed for government to do its duty (see above).<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">We are in a crisis situation with deadly consequences; government is intended to address such situations under direction of our elected officials, with their professional advisors. Nobody is \u201ctaking away your liberty\u201d unless you claim the liberty of perhaps infecting your fellow citizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Be a good citizen, support the needed government efforts, and this will pass in time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Name\">James DeFrancia<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Title\">Aspen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"11.303082191781\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-7 pt-3 pb-4 at-4 pl-4\" readability=\"19.164371772806\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times\u2019 work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><button class=\"btn\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickBelow()\">Donate<\/button> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/letters-to-the-editor\/we-elected-them-for-a-reason\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our fellow citizens that demonstrate on the assertion that they are being deprived of \u201cliberty\u201d seem in need of a basic civics lesson (perhaps evidence of our decaying educational system.) In any event, a brief primer: The duty of government \u2014 elected government \u2014 is to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the populace, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2458406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 20:32:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458430,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458406\/revisions\/2458430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}