'Revolt' of Saucon Valley

Patriots! Are we but slaves? Will we allow the word “revolt” to attract us by the hundred to overthrow our township government?

Or perhaps I misunderstood the story that ran on Patch last week. It read: “It was  The center--which would be in the vein of the popular entertainment center chain Dave & Buster’s--is suppose to include a 24 lane bowling alley, an arcade, a restaurant and bar, and could open in the fall.”

On further reflection, it sounds to me that the appeal of the title is really an appeal to hedonism. The suggestion is that rather than go to work or actually pay taxes, or, for that matter, rebuild , we Sauconites should eat, drink, bowl and be merry in "revolt" against our obligations as breadwinners and citizens.

Maybe the title is an appeal to teenagers who are usually in revolt against their parents and/or their schools. In any event, the use of wins the prize for the most bizarre idea since , also published in Patch, supporting the passage of .

is our newly-elected boy state representative--so young, in fact, that his membership in the Tea Party may be challenged on the ground that he is not old enough to drink tea. Nevertheless, he is willing to have the state spend millions of dollars to prevent a problem--fraud by non-citizens voting--that is so rare as to be practically non-existent. Perhaps Mr. Simmons believes that increasing the size of the state bureaucracy will help reduce the state’s unemployment rate.

It is increasingly true, as Mr. Simmons argues, that identification cards are used to prove legitimacy to purchase booze, get on an airplane, etc., but that does not mean that every qualified voter has one or that constitutionally a state has a right to insist on one when a citizen exercises his or her right to vote. The last time I read the Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment provided, in part:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States....”

Please note, Mr. Simmons, that the Fourteenth Amendment says any law which shall abridge....” The plain meaning of “abridge” is to cut the privileges of citizens of the United States. If requiring identity cards, which you “wholeheartedly” support, is not an abridgement of those rights, then requiring intelligence tests for state representatives is also legal. Egad!

Then, I suggest, we would really have a Revolt of Saucon Valley.