Restricted rights

There is an old story from back in the days when states required people to take a test in order to vote. Back in those days, it was the sheriff of the county that administered the test in the state of Georgia. the test was simple: The sheriff would hand the applicant a newspaper, and simply read the headline aloud. 

Now the story goes that one day, a black man appeared at the Sheriff's office and wanted to register to vote. The sheriff handed the man a newspaper.

It was printed in Japanese. Without missing a beat, the man said: "Well, this is easy. It says here that there ain't no niggas gonna be allowed to vote in Georgia this year."

This is the reason that we do not restrict rights in this country: because to restrict a right is to allow people to deny that right to others. This is why THIS post rightly pisses me off. The racism that allowed that sheriff to deny the man his voting right is just as repugnant as the attitude being used to deny gay marriage or deny gun rights. How dare you restrict a right in order to force others to live as you wish them to.