Blake Ashby Blog: OurAmerican Journey

Our American Journey

Sometimes it seems as if "Conversation" has become a bad word in our country, as if talking to someone not in complete agreement with you is a sign of weakness. Sometimes it seems as if Anger is the only energizing force we now allow ourselves. But that’s not America. In America two people can disagree but still respect the basic humanity of the other person. In America it’s possible to disagree without hate, to talk without shouting. I believe, even still, in the ideal of the United States of America, a democracy where each person has the right to pursue their own life and have their own opinion. If our country is less great than it once was, it is because we have slipped away from this idea, this belief that all men and women have the right to choose the course of their own lives, and their own opinions. It is both the left and the right that have slipped away from this idea, allowed their anger to somehow convince themselves to question the humanity of the other side. Sometimes it seems that fighting anger with reason is impossible. But if history has proven anything, it is that reason does always eventually win. This blog is my effort to again have a conversation, to replace anger with reason. I hope you will join me in a conversation, and together we can recapture the faith in our country and our citizens that made America great.

I’d love to have your contribution to the conversation. If you’d like to leave a comment, you can do so at https://www.facebook.com/BlakeAshbyPage. Thanks for reading.

Freedom of the Group vs the Individual

6/25/2023

Government both gives and takes freedom. We measure this tradeoff at the societal level, on what’s good for society as a whole. But the tradeoffs happen at the individual level. For some of the tradeoffs, it’s balanced – all individuals give up their right to drive on the left-hand side of the road, and all individuals benefit by being able to get to their destination faster. But many of the tradeoff’s disadvantage one group of individuals to advantage a different group of individuals.

A person that owns property next to a river that is classified as protected wetlands is limited by law in what the person can do with that property. We classify land as wetlands because of the role it plays in our ecosystem. The wetlands help filter the water and remove contaminants. They also serve as a buffer during heavy rains. Because the wetlands are undeveloped, the river can spill over its banks. The wetlands absorb some of the water, and by allowing the water to spread out, the slow the rise of the river.

Here in St. Louis Missouri, the Mississippi River is constrained by flood walls and gates that keep floodwater out of the city. But part of the reason the flood walls are sufficient is that further upstream the wetlands around the Missouri River, which joins the Mississippi just upriver of St. Louis, have been protected or reclaimed from farmers. These flood plains allow the Missouri to overflow its banks in times of heavy rain, which slows the volume of water which is passing through St. Louis.

The rules about wetlands benefits hundreds of thousands of people living in St. Louis. It helps ensure their lives aren’t interrupted or even destroyed by catastrophic flooding. The wetlands laws increase the freedom of people living in St. Louis. But they do so by decreasing the freedom of the people that own property upstream from St. Louis. A few give up some of their freedom, so that others might enjoy greater freedom. This is the tradeoff our society has made, and on the whole, society is better for it.

This is the reality of the compromise of freedom. The freedom that government gives to one group of individuals often is achieved by lessening the freedom of another group of individuals.

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