Sitting home today because of the New England weather. We received somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 feet of snow in the last 24 hrs and everything is closed. In fact the governor declared a state of emergency and imposed a travel ban for everyone except essential personnel; snow removal equipment drivers, medical personnel, etc.

In today’s case in the Boston area, staying off the roads was a smart move, but these government imposed travel bans seem to be more frequent and may be conditioning us to ask permission before traveling.

In days past it would have been up to the individual and the road owner to decide if it was safe to travel. Travel is generally accepted as a right. One should be free to travel where he/she chooses as long as he doesn’t trespass on another’s property or violate anyone else’s rights. Is the right to travel becoming “travel is privilege?”

But in an age when the State has a monopoly on road ownership they can restrict travel at will. I suppose you could argue that they were only restricting motor vehicle operation and one could, if he choose, walk or ride a horse on the road. But I’m not even sure that would have been allowed.

While it is probably not worth worrying about, it seems like these travel bans could be a form of conditioning. What sort of future emergencies might be excuses for banning travel? Civil unrest, false flag terrorist attacks, or just the threat of an attack of some sort?

Freedom doesn’t mean we will always be safe from all dangers, it means we are free to weight the risks and rewards for ourselves and choose our own action.