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As we know, in response to the most recent blizzard over the weekend, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and instituted a travel ban for anyone other than emergency vehicles, snow removal vehicles, and taxis, from 4 PM Friday, just before the storm really hit, until 4 PM Saturday, after the storm was over. As a result, the number of people and vehicles stranded in the snow in Massachusetts is statistically insignificant, and the roads in many communities were almost completely cleared before the Monday commute.
In other words, it worked. A blizzard can be considered a "natural disaster", and, here in Massachusetts, where the storm was centered, it was mostly an inconvenience for most people. Oh, it caused problems -- some of my friends missed the JoCo cruise they'd been looking forward to all year. And many people are still without power. More seriously, a few people died from carbon monoxide poisoning, running their generators inside, and I'm sure there will be a few more from blocked tailpipes in cars. But still. For an historic blizzard, the amount of disruption we have experienced as a Commonwealth is minimal.
We had a lot of advantages here: good weather forecasting let us know of the possibility five days before it happened, and that it was likely three days out. So everyone had a chance to make plans to deal with it. But the importance of Gov. Patrick's travel ban can't be overstated. It worked; it saved a lot of trouble, and probably a decent number of lives, too.
But a lot of libertarians feel that it was a restriction of liberty. Which, of course, it was -- but of a type and level which civilizations have generally felt is reasonable. So I've been pondering just where in the social contract this sort of thing falls.
My feeling is that Gov. Patrick's travel ban lives in the same neighborhood as militias do.
The idea of the "militia" is that the able-bodied citizens of a society may be mobilized, as a group, to help during times of emergency. Part of the social contract is that we, as citizens, agree that we will help our community when we are called upon to do so. Naturally, like all interactions, this is subject to negotiation -- we can (and should) argue about how often the citizenry can be called up, and for how long, and for what level of service.
But, the way I see it, in this case, Gov. Patrick called upon the militia to act for 24 hours to do, literally, the absolute minimum he could as us to do: nothing. He said that those of us who are capable of doing so should, as part of our duty to the Commonwealth, sit tight and leave the roads free, so we didn't get in the way of the other people actually doing things.
Our local mayor has called upon us, as citizens of the city of Melrose, to act further, and to shovel out any fire hydrants and storm drains we can reach, and, further, if we have snowblowers, to help clear the walks of any elderly or disabled neighbors. Again, in my mind, this counts as calling out the militia to deal with an emergency -- able-bodied adults are supposed to use their skills and tools in defense and protection of their society. In this case, we're using snowblowers to protect against icy sidewalks, but it's the same principle as using our firearms to protect against invading wolves, Russians, Martians, or whatever.
In other words, it worked. A blizzard can be considered a "natural disaster", and, here in Massachusetts, where the storm was centered, it was mostly an inconvenience for most people. Oh, it caused problems -- some of my friends missed the JoCo cruise they'd been looking forward to all year. And many people are still without power. More seriously, a few people died from carbon monoxide poisoning, running their generators inside, and I'm sure there will be a few more from blocked tailpipes in cars. But still. For an historic blizzard, the amount of disruption we have experienced as a Commonwealth is minimal.
We had a lot of advantages here: good weather forecasting let us know of the possibility five days before it happened, and that it was likely three days out. So everyone had a chance to make plans to deal with it. But the importance of Gov. Patrick's travel ban can't be overstated. It worked; it saved a lot of trouble, and probably a decent number of lives, too.
But a lot of libertarians feel that it was a restriction of liberty. Which, of course, it was -- but of a type and level which civilizations have generally felt is reasonable. So I've been pondering just where in the social contract this sort of thing falls.
My feeling is that Gov. Patrick's travel ban lives in the same neighborhood as militias do.
The idea of the "militia" is that the able-bodied citizens of a society may be mobilized, as a group, to help during times of emergency. Part of the social contract is that we, as citizens, agree that we will help our community when we are called upon to do so. Naturally, like all interactions, this is subject to negotiation -- we can (and should) argue about how often the citizenry can be called up, and for how long, and for what level of service.
But, the way I see it, in this case, Gov. Patrick called upon the militia to act for 24 hours to do, literally, the absolute minimum he could as us to do: nothing. He said that those of us who are capable of doing so should, as part of our duty to the Commonwealth, sit tight and leave the roads free, so we didn't get in the way of the other people actually doing things.
Our local mayor has called upon us, as citizens of the city of Melrose, to act further, and to shovel out any fire hydrants and storm drains we can reach, and, further, if we have snowblowers, to help clear the walks of any elderly or disabled neighbors. Again, in my mind, this counts as calling out the militia to deal with an emergency -- able-bodied adults are supposed to use their skills and tools in defense and protection of their society. In this case, we're using snowblowers to protect against icy sidewalks, but it's the same principle as using our firearms to protect against invading wolves, Russians, Martians, or whatever.