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Opinion January 16, 2008
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Beware of those who seek our own well being

Dear Editor:

Harold Lederman's comments, December 5, 2007, on PETA brought to mind a quote from C.S Lewis concerning well-intentioned but wrong-headed government intrusion into our personal lives. Lewis' comment was directed at governmental bureaucrats, of which we have too many, but is equally applicable to quasi-governmental organizations like PETA, of which we also have too many.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

While I cannot vouch for the absolute accuracy of the foregoing quote, I think I have not altered what its author intended, not its pertinence.

Bureaucrats don't bother to justify their depredations, and all too many "do good' organizations go well beyond mere exaggeration to further theirs.

William J. Yuengling, Amityville
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