America’s fascinating 1st Amendment & Laws

No one knows how many laws there are in the United States.  Apparently, no one can count that high.

They’ve been accumulating, of course, for more than 200 years.  When federal laws were first codified in 1927, they fit into a single volume.  By the 1980s, there were 50 volumes of more than 23,000 pages. There are about 20,000 laws just governing the use and ownership of guns. From the start of 2000 through 2007, Congress had created at least 452 new crimes and therefore added new laws.

The present dispute over masks embodies the political dynamics of the campaign. It also reflects a classic American struggle between those who defend public safety and those who believe just as deeply in personal liberty.

The fight over masks is playing out against a backdrop of a health crisis that has reached historic levels. More than 35.5,000,000 people in the US have tested positive for the virus, according to the World Health Organization, and at least 614,000 people have died, and no end in sight!

The divide between those who wear masks and the anti-maskers, as they call themselves, has become increasingly sharp. In interviews in the Midwest and across the US, people dug in their heels and defended their position, whether for or against the wearing of masks. Many sounded deeply mistrustful of people on the other side and blamed them for the nation’s economic and public health crises.