A Day For Confederate History Month

 Day for April

Confederate Heritage Month and Memorial

There is a little-known fact about the law that made Confederate Heritage Month and Memorial Day a law for April.  It was made law by the Legislature but never has been repealed.  Governor Deal can change the name on the calendar, but cannot change law.  Here is how GA Law 1-4-20 reads:

(a) The General Assembly hereby finds and determines that tourism is a great economic resource in Georgia; and historical, heritage, and cultural inheritance are among the tourism industry's most popular attractions. Georgia's Confederate heritage, physical artifacts and battle sites, and historic events and persons not only attract visitors, they are potentially of even greater importance and benefit to our state's economy. Increased development of our state's Confederate history and heritage as part of the tourism industry will be enhanced through recognizing, celebrating, and advertising that heritage and history.

(b) The month of April of each year is hereby designated as Confederate History and Heritage Month and shall be set aside to honor, observe, and celebrate the Confederate States of America, its history, those who served in its armed forces and government, and all those millions of its citizens of various races and ethnic groups and religions who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause which they held so dear from its founding on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, until the Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah sailed into Liverpool Harbor and surrendered to British authorities on November 6, 1865.

(c) Officials and departments of state, county, and municipal governments, boards of education, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, businesses, and all citizens are encouraged to participate in programs, displays, and activities that commemorate and honor our shared history and cultural inheritance throughout each April during Confederate History and Heritage Month.

- See more at: http://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-1-general-provisions/ga-code-sect-1-4-20.html#sthash.SAHWo1T7.dpuf

A resolution was introduced this year to have the names put back on the state calender.  It didn't pass because it was introduced too late in the session, but it will be up front next legislative session.

This year once again the City of McDonough the county seat for Henry County, GA will recognized Confederate Heritage Month and Memorial Day on the square in McDonough with a Proclamation by Mayor Billy Copeland.  This by far makes the City of Stockbridge look bad as McDonough has more clout and more class than they will ever have.

The Spalding County Board of Commissioners recently voted unanimously to recognize Confederate History Month and Memorial Day with a Proclamation on April 3, 2017.   The Harlason County Board of Commissioners recently voted to recognize Confederate History Month and Memorial Day with a Proclamation.

There have already been several Confederate Memorial Day events in Georgia and many more to come.  The list below covers some, but not all of them.

United Daughters of the Confederacy®

Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter 2018

cordially invites you, your family and friends to attend an observance of

Confederate Memorial Day

Saturday, the twenty-second of April Two thousand seventeen

at two o’clock in the afternoon

Awarding of Crosses of Military Service Guest Speaker

Michael K. Shaffer

A Confederate Memorial Day observance has been held at Historic Oakland every year since 1866. Our ceremony is held at the base of the Confederate Obelisk, as it has been since the Obelisk was built in 1873. A reception, hosted by the Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter 2018, United Daughters of the Confederacy®, will follow near the Confederate Obelisk.

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GA-Griffin Confederate Memorial Day - Saturday, April 15, 10:00 am, Stonewall Confederate Cemetery, Memorial Drive, Griffin GA. The purpose of this observance is to honor the men who are buried here. Keynote speaker is Curtis Harris Collier III, from Athens, GA. FREE admission. 770-412-1646, barrowscv@inbox.com

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April 1, 2017

16th Annual Stone Mountain Memorial Service

16th Annual Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Day Celebration

The annual Confederate Memorial Day celebrations will be on April 1st this year. The lodging will be the same as years past at the Stone Mountain Days Inn. Most will arrive on Friday night for a social evening at the Hotel and leave out for home Saturday afternoon after the celebrations or Sunday morning. As last year we will collect the park entrance fee Friday night and early Saturday morning to speed up going through the gate. When you line up Saturday morning please make sure you have paid the fee. A picnic lunch will be provided for $6 (burger, chips and a drink) at the picnic area by the bike parking area before the celebration begins.

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April 8, 2017, the SCV Camp 141 hosted Confederate Memorial Day in Albany, GA at the CSA Memorial Park with Herman Crain as the guest speaker who writes the historical column for the Lee County Ledger.

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Lt. James T. Woodward Camp # 1399 Warner Robins Confederate Memorial day Services:

Friday April 21, 2017 at 6:00pm - 211 Stevens Street in Warner Robins at the Bason Family Cemetery

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Friday April 21, 2017 at 7:00pm -Cliett Cemetery Byron Ga. The Cliett Cemetery is located two miles west of I-75 on the Georgia 247 Connector

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Lt. James T. Woodward Camp #1399

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 9:00am Confederate Monument, Macon Ga. At the Corner of 2nd Street and Cotton Ave.

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 10:00am Rose Hill Cemetery Macon Ga. 1071 Riverside Drive Macon Ga.

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 12:00 noon. Lt. James T. Woodward Cemetery -Hartley Bridge Rd, Bibb County, Ga.

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 2:00pm Byron City Cemetery, 101 Murdock Ln. Byron Ga.

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 4:00pm Oaklawn Cemetery in Ft. Valley Ga. Hwy 49 south side of Ft. Valley

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General E. Porter Alexander Porter # 158, Confederate Memorial Day Service:

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Our annual Confederate Memorial Day ceremony at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, Georgia will feature Mrs. Betty Jean Miller of Kline, S.C. a prominent member of the S.C. UDC. This event will be on Saturday April 22nd starting at 11:00 a.m. featuring black powder salutes and time to honor your ancestors.

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GA-Augusta Confederate Memorial Day Commemoration - Saturday, April 22, downtown Augusta GA. Parade leaving at 11:00 am from the Confederate Veterans Monument in the 700 block of Broad Street, arriving at the Confederate veterans section of Magnolia Cemetery (702 3rd Street) where a memorial service will begin at approximately 11:45 am. Included will be a black powder salute, cannon firing and honor guard. Mrs. Betty Jean Miller of the United Daughters of the Confederacy will be the featured speaker. FREE admission. http://eporteralexander.homestead.com/

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GA-McDonough Confederate Memorial Day Observance - Saturday, April 22, 2:00 pm, McDonough City Square, downtown McDonough GA. You are invited to Henry County’s annual Confederate Memorial Day Observance. Mayor Billy Copeland will be onhand to give a proclamation for Confederate History Month and Memorial Day.  The keynote speaker will be Sons of Confederate Veterans Georgia Division Commander Scott Gilbert. FREE admission. 770-296-5139, zachrycamp108@gmail.com

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GA-Resaca Confederate Memorial Day Service - Sunday, April 23, 2:00 pm, Resaca Confederate Cemetery, Resaca GA. An observance of Confederate Memorial Day will be held at the Resaca Confederate Cemetery, approximately seven miles north of Calhoun on U.S. Highway 41. Turn east on Confederate Cemetery Road. Writer/Historian Ken Herron will be the keynote speaker. Music will be provided by the Company G, 28th Georgia Fife & Drum Corps and Laney House. FREE admission. In the event of bad weather this event will be held at Oakleigh, 335 South Wall Street in downtown Calhoun, the home of the Gordon County Historical Society.706-629-1515, http://exploregordoncounty.com/list/history/oakleigh-gordon-historical-society

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GA-Waynesboro Confederate Memorial Service - Sunday, April 23, 3:00 pm, Waynesboro Confederate Memorial Cemetery, West 6th Street @ Jones Avenue, Waynesboro GA. You are invited to the annual Confederate Memorial Day service to honor Burke County’s Confederate soldiers. Featured speaker is David Hollingsworth. FREE admission. tdlively@hotmail.com

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GA-Marietta Confederate Memorial Day Service - Sunday, April 23, 3:00 pm, Marietta Confederate Cemetery

395 Powder Springs Street, Marietta GA. You are invited to the annual Marietta Confederate Cemetery Confederate Memorial Day Service at the cemetery’s gazebo. FREE admission. 770-427-4662, henrylamonsmith@bellsouth.net

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GA-Brunswick Confederate Memorial Day Service - Saturday, April 29, 10:30 am to 12:00 noon, Newcastle Street and Hanover Park, Brunswick GA. A procession down Newcastle Street from G Street begins at 10:30 am. Meet at Hanover Park, site of Brunswick’s Confederate Monument, for the service beginning at 11:00 am. FREE admission. 912-571-8657

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GA-Bainbridge Confederate Memorial Day - Saturday, April 29, 7:00 pm, Willis Park, downtown Bainbridge GA. Bainbridge’s annual Confederate Memorial Day program will be held at Willis Park, on the square in Bainbridge. FREE admission. 404-456-3393, timfpilgrim@yahoo.com

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GA-Appling County Confederate Memorial Day Ceremony - Sunday, April 30, 3:00 pm, Holmesville, 6 miles south of Baxley on Georgia Highway 15, Appling County GA. The public is invited to the annual Confederate Memorial Day Ceremony at the Holmesville monument site, six miles south of Baxley on Georgia Highway 15 in Appling County. FREE admission. info@applinggrays.org

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It is good to see these localities exercise their right to celebrate Confederate Heritage Month and Confederate Memorial Day.  There are many people here in the state who lost family members in that war and they never owned a slave.  They went because they wanted to protect their homes.  Many people are trying to rewrite history as though the Civil War never existed, but it did.  It is part of the history of Georgia and cannot be whitewashed away to suit certain parties who are no more than racist groups trying to destroy the history of Georgia and the good people of the state.  Please never forget your ancestors to make a group happy.

Deo DeVince

A Man Of Honor

A former Georgia State Trooper rode along with H.K. Edgerton to make sure no one bothered him on his walk up to Hogansville from LaGrange along Hwy 29 or Hogansville Rd.

 He was walking up Hogansville Road, I pulled up to him and we talked for a few. I offered him a ride, but he refused saying he was carrying the colors and marching for the cause. So I made sure I stayed on Hogansville road and he got safely to his resting point in Hogansville.

Mr. Edgerton, born in 1948 in North Carolina, has been a voice for those who wish to celebrate their Southern Heritage.  He was once the head of the NAACP Chapter in his hometown in North Carolina and later realized that what the people needed to understand was the truth.  He became a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans because one of his ancestors was in the war.  He has traveled the nation with the battle flag and has given numerous talks on the heritage that has been attacked by those who don't know better.  As he has said many times that flag does not belong to those pointed head people in the white robes.  It belongs to those poor dirt farmers who left their homes to try and protect them.  He has also remarked that many of the people who call themselves "civil rights workers" are no more than radicals who use the flag of the black panther movement as their symbol.  Mr. Edgerton is so tired of the society today wanting to rewrite the history books to suit what is politically correct for them.  That makes them no better than jackals trying to rape history and trying to make it all for nothing.  He said that the flag he totes never flew over a slave ship, only the United States flag and the flags of the European nations bringing the slaves to the West Indies to work the plantations across the islands, Central and South America and into North America.  Mr. Edgerton has been a voice for what is lacking in the South and that is guts to be able to stand for what you believe.  And he walked the lonely road in Georgia with a retired gentleman to make sure no one bothered him.

Blog Staff.

Councilman Alexander Supports Confederate History Month

Councilman Alexander Supports Confederate History Month.

You may ask yourself how is this possible because Councilman Alexander has made it clear he does not support American Veterans. The last time I was able to talk to the Stockbridge City Council I told them of the U.S. Government making Confederate Veterans American Veterans. And yet Mr. Alexander was unable to learn what I was talking about. Or he refuses to learn the truth of the great Confederate Army. Last year Mr. Alexander was instrumental in denying me my constitutional right to address the Stockbridge City Council, which is part of Amendment 1 of the Bill of Rights which he so often uses in his defense,  to ask for a proclamation to honor our Confederate Veterans. All they had to do was either vote yea or nay, but to deny a person the right to speak because you are prejudiced is wrong.  He has admitted it when he was boasting about getting cleared of all ethics charges brought against him by several people including myself.

I have sources that have informed me of just how hard it is to work with Mr. Alexander. That he always thinks he knows what is best for the people of Stockbridge and it is usually what is best for making him look good or for his cronies. He also touts diversity to everyone, but only if it is his kind of diversity most of the time liberal progressives like himself don’t believe in diversity. I have been told and we all have seen this that he cannot stay away from the front of a camera that is being self-centered at its best. We have seen him on the news where he calls them just so he can be on TV and cuddle with a reporter and that is another question why is he putting his arms around a news reporter? Just what can cause someone to act like this. The city council may need to send him to a doctor like they did the former mayor. Someone that has an agenda for himself or someone that he is working for such as a friend from Atlanta. The last time I was around Mr. Alexander he would not look at me. But he did turn one time and I was right there. I noticed something disturbing I had been trained in a previous job I had in the 90s. His eyes were glassy and skin was waxy,  I do not know what is wrong with him, but these are some of the signs of a serious problem.

Stockbridge has gotten into worse shape while Mr. Alexander has been on the city Council. Because whatever is wrong with him it will bring Stockbridge down the same destructive path I fear he is on. The entity I worked for in the 90s have taken notice of the shenanigans going on in Stockbridge and I know if they have to come in it will not be good. I ask the citizens to help get him recalled or at least vote him out of office. Maybe even have the city council have him removed because he is doing everything in his power to have some of them removed in the next election.

So just how does he support Confederate History Month. By not letting me speak he lit a fire under me. I will be posting more here and on facebook about our Confederate Veterans for the entire month of April. You see he does not know me I am a very hard headed person that doesn’t give a damn about how people think of me. I have been called every name in the book throughout my life and I just don’t care anymore, so there!!!!

Alfred Britt.      

Protecting Criminal Activity

The press continues to want to protect former President Obama about the issue of the wire tapping that has been asserted by the new President Trump.   ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America" came down on the side of the former President and it was very apparent in his questions to the White House representative.  According to various reports in several news outlets from over the past several months about the former president had him wire tapped.  Also, with tweets from his former candidate against him in the election Hillary Clinton that showed there was wiretapping going on because she elluded to it on twitter.

Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton

Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.

8:36 PM - 31 Oct 2016

  12,391 12,391 Retweets   16,026 16,026 likes

Hillary’s Tweet and her campaign’s press release point to Hillary having special, inside information about what may have been the subject of the wiretap. Where did Hillary get this information? Why did Hillary feel free to share it on Twitter?  Is Hillary’s Tweet divulging confidential, classified information gleaned from an Obama administration wiretap of Trump Tower?

WikiLeaks ✔ @wikileaks

Obama has a history of tapping & hacking his friends and rivals https://wikileaks.org/nsa-201602/  #NSA #PRISM #Merkel #Sarkozy #BanKiMoon #WTO #Trump

3:00 AM - 5 Mar 2017

  19,845 19,845 Retweets   21,255 21,255 likes

“Today, 23 February 2016 at 00:00 GMT [updated 12:20 GMT], WikiLeaks publishes highly classified documents showing that the US National Security Agency bugged a private climate change strategy meeting; between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin; singled out the Chief of Staff of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for long term interception targeting his Swiss phone; singled out the Director of the Rules Division of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Johann Human, and targetted his Swiss phone for long term interception; stole sensitive Italian diplomatic cables detailing how Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to help patch up his relationship with US President Barack Obama, who was refusing to talk to Netanyahu; intercepted top EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret strategy and red lines to stop the US “extort[ing]” them at the WTO Doha arounds (the talks subsequently collapsed); explicitly targetted five other top EU economic officials for long term interception, including their French, Austrian and Belgium phone numbers; explicitly targetted the phones of Italy’s ambassador to NATO and other top Italian officials for long term interception; and intercepted details of a critical private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berluscon, where the latter was told the Italian banking system was ready to “pop like a cork.”

Then, the infamous meeting of former President Bill Clinton with DOJ Loretta Lynch.

What else significant happened in June? On June 27 former President Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the tarmac at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix. The two met privately for 30 minutes.

Several days later, Hilliary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her private server and her handling of classified information. Then, on July 5, FBI Director James Comey announced Hillary Clinton would not be indicted.

Speculation ran rampant about the secret Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting. Conjecture centered around whether Clinton and Lynch negotiated how Hilliary’s FBI interview and the subsequent decision not to indict would roll out. Was there more to that secret tarmac meeting?

Could Attorney General Lynch and Bill Clinton have discussed wiretapping candidate Donald Trump?

But when it comes to the press covering for Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton it is with strange ethics they hand the questioning over to George Stephanopoulos who worked for former President Bill Clinton.  Now what is his motives and what is he hiding himself?  Of course the FBI, CIA, NSA and our other intelligence gathering people will deny any involvement in this scheme because they call this plausible deniability.

Referenced information for this article from the following sources:

The New York Times; The Washington Post; Wiki Leaks; Twitter; MSNBC; ABC; CNN; FOX; Reuters; and the AP.

The Staff at the Community News Blog

Was the temporary ban on admitting refugees a self-inflected necessity?

Was the temporary ban on admitting refugees a self-inflected necessity?

If one can step away from emotion and political affiliations for a few moments and look at the story history tells through the use of data, one might see another point of view. Unlike the media, I am not going to spin the data to tell you what the data means. I make no apologies, because you are going to have to figure it out for yourself.

I will share with you two sets of cumulative data on the admittance of refugees for the last eight-years and three-months. The documents used (links provided at the end) are; the FY 2009 thru 2015 Refugee Admissions Statistics, and the Excel Spread sheet, Summary of Refugee Admissions which includes both FY 2016 and the first three months of FY 2017 ending 31-December-2016.

Cumulative totals for Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia as reported by the Department of State:

FY 2009
Iran 5,381
Iraq 18,838
Syria 25
Yemen 47
Total 24,291

FY 2010
Iran 3,543
Iraq 18,016
Libya 1
Syria 25
Yemen 15
Total 21,603

FY 2011
Iran 2,032
Iraq 9,388
Libya 1
Syria 29
Total 11,450

FY 2012
Iran 1,758
Iraq 12,163
Libya 5
Syria 31
Total 13,975

FY 2013
Iran 2,578
Iraq 19,488
Libya 1
Syria 36
Total 22,103

FY 2014
Iran 2,846
Iraq 19,769
Syria 105
Yemen 3
Total 22,723

FY 2015
Iran 3,109
Iraq 12,676
Syria 1,682
Yemen 16
Total 17,485

FY 2016
Iran 3,750
Iraq 9,880
Libya 1
Syria 12,587
Yemen 26
Total 26,244

FY 2017
Iran 1,061
Iraq 3,624
Libya 3
Syria 3,566
Yemen 4
Total 8,258 (1)

(1) Three months into FY 2017 Iran was on track for 4,244; Iraq on track for 14,496; Syria on track for 14,256. These three countries alone could have totaled about 32,996 refugees.

Of the approx 79 countries 25,671 refugees, were admitted in first three months of FY 2017 ending on 31-December-2016. If the current pace continued, 102,684 folks could have been admitted.

Looking at both the 'Ceiling and Admitted' figures for the same years:

FY 2009: 80,000 and 74,654
FY 2010: 80,000 and 73,311
FY 2011: 80,000 and 56,424
FY 2012: 76,000 and 58,238
FY 2013: 70,000 and 69,926
FY 2014: 70,000 and 69,987
FY 2015: 70,000 and 69,933
FY 2016: 85,000 and 84,994 (2)
FY 2017: 110,000 and 25,671 (3)

(2) In FY 2016 the Ceiling was raised by an additional 15,000 individuals. Not accounting for government holidays that was approximately an additional 57 to 58 refugees processed and possibly admitted every day.

(3) In FY 2017 the Ceiling was increased by another 25,000 refugees to 110,000. Raising the two-year total to 40,000 additional potential refugee's each year from FY 2015. Allowing a potential daily increase of 154 to 155 additional refugee's to be investigated, processed, and admitted.

The numbers above do not include an unknown number of refugees who applied, were processed, investigated, and then refused entry.

Commentary:

My concerns.

What I have not found yet, is evidence showing where the government hired additional qualified personnel to adequately process the additional 40,000 possibly admitted refugees, and provide a reasonable minimal level of public safety.

At some point, and I do not know if we have reached that point, or gone beyond that point, yet. The Government is going to fail to do its job, and the public is going to pay a price because of it.

I hope, we have not passed that point.

Bruce Kendall

Fast Radio Burst

Many scientists and astrophysicists are studying a particular FRB (Fast Radio Bursts) which are coming from a very small galaxy over 3 billion light years away.  This FRB known as 121102 was discovered in 2012.  It has been studied by the Max Planck Institute in Germany as well as at many observatories around the world.  This is a very strange FRB in that it is a repeater.  These FRB's are not known to be repeating as this one is doing.  Many are wondering why and how this is occurring especially on regular intervals.

Here is what many have summed up about this FRB.  "But some of the authors also cautioned that the repeating nature of FRB 121102 could indicate that it is somehow physically different than other known FRB's. FRB 121102 is not alone. The researchers also found a persistent source of radio waves in the same area of the sky, and the evidence suggests that both sources of radio waves are connected somehow; they either arose from the same source or are linked in some other way, the researchers said. The results of these studies will appear in three separate papers on Jan. 5 — one in the journal Nature and two in The Astrophysical Journal Letters."  This subject will continue to be studied in the years to come to try and come up with a feasible idea as to why this is occurring.

Dr. Mike Moon PhD.

A New Attack on Personal Freedom by a Local Municipality in Georgia

A New Attack on Personal Freedom by a Local Municipality in Georgia

To begin with I would like to stress that I am not a smoker and never have  been.  I never 

wanted to smoke and it is my right  and choice not to.  And in the same vein, I feel that if 

someone wishes to smoke in their own car or home,  and yard that is their right to do so.

I have heard that the City of Stockbridge in Henry County wishes to create an ordinance that 

says you cannot smoke in your car with a child aboard.  I see this as a governmental intrusion upon the private life of a citizen.  In the Declaration of Independence, it says that people have the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that show three examples of the unalienable rights which the Creator or God and which governments were created to protect. The City of Stockbridge should be protecting the individual right for a person to smoke in their car.  Georgia law says that the citizens car is an extension of their home.  I don't like seeing individual rights abated by the government in any form.  This is a road that has a slippery slope to it that will cause further governmental intrusion into your lives. The most obvious concern is perhaps the most troubling: a fear that these laws invite a new level of government intrusion into people’s private lives. Many people believe that they have a sphere of privacy in their cars, much like in their homes.  For example the following case law is a good point of reference:

In City of Zion v. Behrens,  the Supreme Court of Illinois invalidated a

city ordinance that made it unlawful to smoke tobacco in any public place because it was “apparently an attempt on the part of the municipality to regulate and control the habits and practices  of the citizen without any reasonable basis for so doing.”  The court further found that the ordinance could not be upheld on the grounds of preventing fire and protecting city property because it sought to control smoking in places other than those with highly combustible materials. This also would have carried over into the home and vehicle of the citizen and they found this unlawful. Another case law example is the following:

In Hershberg v. City of Barbourville,  for example, the Kentucky Court of

Appeals struck down a local ordinance that made it illegal to smoke within the city limits of Barbourville because the law was so broad as to make it illegal to smoke within one’s own home or other private premises and vehicles.  They found this unconstitutional. We must stress that we have to protect that which we don't like because if not then we are sacrificing our freedoms in the long run.

In summing up,  the right of privacy is a broad concept, used in diverse contexts to refer to a variety of claims or entitlements. One of the more significant branches of the right of privacy concerns the right of an individual to make personal decisions about his or her life free from government control; that is, the right of individual autonomy. The right of individual autonomy or privacy potentially may encompass matters such as the right to marry, the right to have a family, the right of reproductive freedom, the right of bodily integrity, the right to ingest substances such as alcohol and smoking,  the right to refuse medical treatment. and so on.  The concept of privacy or autonomy often is used interchangeably with the concept of liberty, both referring to a fundamental right of self-determination. The right of privacy is based on the principle that “a person belongs to himself and not others nor to society as a whole.” It embodies a sense of “personhood”—an “autonomy of self”—that should remain free from intrusion or coercion by society or the government. It comprehends that there are certain personal decisions concerning one’s life that an individual should be able to make for oneself free from interference by the state.  The right of privacy has developed primarily through decisions of the United States Supreme Court interpreting the Federal Constitution. It is the right of privacy for a person to smoke in a home or vehicle that is theirs.  If a child is in the vehicle the parent is usually the one who is driving and if they wish to smoke around their child it is their choice as  a parent.  When the government steps into your life in this manner to try and ban you from smoking in your car or home it is another step towards a dictatorial government that has it's fingers in too much of your life as it is today.  And for a city that has been embroiled in too many court cases for over a decade now, they shouldn't  go down this road of attacking a citizens rights.  They should go about the job they were elected to do and make sure the citizens have a police, fire, roads and utilities instead of getting into the cars and bedrooms of the community.

Dr. Mike Moon