Originally posted - September 11, 2008
“IGNORANCE OF THE LAW…”
Apparently, ignorance of the law is not considered an excuse or good reason for infractions.
Before I go any further, NO, I didn’t do something stupid and get in trouble…it’s just something that bothers me….
There are thousands of laws and sub-laws in our cities, counties, states, and country. How in the world could we possibly know them all… especially when they change often?
There is potential that you will learn of a small portion of said laws from the television news media, newspapers, internet or word of mouth.
<I personally don’t really read newspapers very often…plus most of them cost money.
(Even if you read every local newspaper in its entirety, you still wouldn’t get all the laws that are introduced)
<I’ve got more productive things to do than to sit in front of a television all day… plus they cost money… I have the $7 cable package (the basics). It’s not in the budget for some people for the extra electricity, T.V. or the cable package. (P.S. I do miss having ESPN though…but FOX, NBC, & ABC works for now)
(Even if you watched every news channel all day long, everyday, you still wouldn’t get all the laws that are introduced)
<I occasionally stumble across articles of news when using the internet to check email and other networking sites (myspace, facebook, blogs…etc)…. But I have better things to do than to scan news sites on the computer all day.
(Even if you looked at every news site all day long, everyday, you still wouldn’t get all the laws that are introduced)
<Then there is always word of mouth. I talk to lots of people about lots of things… but discussing the latest and greatest laws is a very rare subject that comes up. New residents to the local area very rarely ask me about local laws nor would I be a good reference because of personal ignorance.
Solutions: I don’t really have a “fix-all” solution and apparently the experts don’t either….but I do think there is a difference in ignorance and just being uninformed.
The few pro-active things I can think of are:
>To utilize the postal system to send out periodic law changes and then maybe a complete current copy of local, state, and national laws be sent out yearly and to new residents upon move-in. This would cost the tax-payers a butt-load of money to incorporate this but it would be more effective and informative.
>To have courses in grade school and college/university levels to create a continuing education setting as laws change. I don’t remember ever learning about legal stuff in school. I guess I just learned a lot of stuff from absorbing bits and pieces as I go about daily life.
Not everyone has the luxury of communication resources. Many American families are working multiple jobs just trying to feed their families. Time is limited, how can we be better stewards? Any suggestions?