How do you like being commanded to do things by your alleged servants, even if they are best for you? The legislatures of several sovereign states have been ordered by the federal government to pass a law by June 30 authorizing police to stop and cite motorists solely because the are not wearing seat belts. They must do this or else! Or what? Or else they will have some of their federal highway funds withheld.

Arizona is one state that does not authorize stops exclusively for belt violations and is not considering having one. In fact, last year the matter came up in the Legislature and failed. Arizona is happy with its 85 percent compliance rate. Will we lose our federal highway funds?

The answer is “yes and no.” We will lose funds the feds would favor us with if we complied, but it is additional money not the usual stipend for highways. So we will forfeit some new money but the state will still get what we usually get. The orders were written using the most imperative language possible. In fact they do not penalize the states severely for failure to comply. That’s politics.

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How much that additional amount is could not be determined. Whatever it is, we need all the money we can get like most of the states right now. Should we be forced to let the feds make our laws for us? In some circles, that is known as blackmail, but of course when the government does it, it isn’t.

It’s not like Arizona is flush with funds right now. Quite the contrary. The state Supreme Court just told the state last week it couldn’t demand $29.7 million from the cities and towns to help balance its budget. The court based the decision on technical grounds.

The demand for the funding by cities and towns was contained in a budget bill, but it was not an appropriation, which apparently is all the state constitution permits in budget bills. This may be cured I surmise by passing a new bill that is not a budget bill, which might be upheld. So the cities and towns are not out of the woods yet.

But don’t lose any sleep over it. Politicians are inclined to cry “disaster” whenever they are deprived of funds they had hoped for. The Legislature was not surprised at the ruling and House Majority Leader John McComish, R-Phoenix, said there’s a cushion of $90 million in the budget that should cover the “loss.”

Where did the feds get the money they so magnanimously favor us with to build and repair highways? Did they extract it from our colonies on the moon? No, they took it from us. The feds take your money, pocket a hefty handling fee, then give some back to you if you do as you’re told.

Do you like that journey your money took? That’s democracy, folks.

Now don’t get me wrong. Nobody supports wearing seat belts more than I do. I’ve seen what happens to people who exit their cars through the windshield. It’s not a pretty sight. But I value personal liberty even more and we’re at greater risk of losing that than of getting into a collision. If John Doe is dumb enough to risk his life unnecessarily, I say let him. Educate him, implore him, but in the end let leave him alone to hurt himself if insists.

I know there are some people who will say it’s our brininess because when he gets killed or seriously injured we will all have to bear some of that burden. But following that argument, nobody could ever enjoy personal autonomy because everything we do can affect the community one way or the other. If that rankles too much, we can always deny a person injured who was not wearing seat belts any social or medical services. But that’s a churlish and punitive attitude that really does nothing to ennoble our society.

I had a friend (note the past tense) who refused to wear a seat belt. He insisted that in a collision he would be thrown clear. I never could convince him he was wrong. But it was his life.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the feds left us our own money and let us make our own laws? John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and those guys thought that was the best way to organize the country. And so do I.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.