To the Editor:
A private company is nationalized when the government controls what legal actions that company can and cannot take. Life is a constant process of making the best choice, based on a core set of values, the facts of the situation and reflection.
Our Constitution was ratified by a process that began with the reflections of individual citizens as they placed their vote and ended with ratification based on that popular vote. We the People enumerated the powers of the government.
Recently, a judge ordered a private company to alter its legal product or face penalties. We the People are now faced with deciding the merits of the first sentence of the Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
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A core element of our free nation since that first day is the ingrained presence of a unique mix of morals, virtues, integrity and ethics recognized as a critical part of preparing children to become parents. Combining these ingrained values with free enterprise has resulted in each person being able to improve their standard of living during their lifetime.
The first generation to live in our free nation wrote a Constitution based on reflection and choice that enumerates the powers We the People are giving to the government. Each generation, as part of being a citizen, is responsibility for preparing their children to keep our nation free and then passing a free nation to those children.
History has repeatedly recorded the adverse effects of temptation on the values and principles of mankind. In general, clever people have been able to take advantage of the less educated. We set the minimum voting age and drinking age based on that understanding of history.
Are we asking Apple Corporation to unlock an iPhone or the unwritten powers of the government to control private industry through judgment and regulation?
Jim Oase
Milbank
