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Stormwind's Journal


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Inalienable Rights

05:17 Mar 30 2006
Times Read: 594


This discourse is really going to be from a very American perspective, and I apologize in advance to people living in other parts of the world. I hope, however, that you’re able to find something inspiring or at least thought-provoking in this brief essay no matter where you live. In America we have a lot of high-sounding words on paper about “inalienable rights”. We also have a “Bill of Rights” that is allegedly inviolate. Yet increasingly here in America, individual rights are under attack from both sides of the political spectrum. In this first installment I’ll limit my focus to parts of the first two Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which enumerate the following: freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to bear arms.



Freedom of speech and press seem to be under attack in different ways from the opposite ends of the political spectrum. The right wants to claim that we are in a “time of war” and any dissent with the administration or its policies is tantamount to treason. This in many ways is typical of the squelch of dissenting speech in any of the dictatorships around the world. Deny your opposition a voice, imprison or otherwise censure them to prevent the spread of their ideas.



Yet the left is also guilty of similar violations of speech, though they are more insidious. I refer specifically to the doctrine of Political Correctness. The notion that we should not, or can not, say things that might upset someone. In many ways this is as dictatorial as squelching dissenting opinions, because it is meant to control how people think and respond. In the end, it ends up creating an the appearance of civility, while mistrust ferments beneath the surface.



The true test of the Freedom of Speech should be measured by one’s reaction to speech one disagrees with. There are very few cases where speech is truly unprotected. Someone should be free to express their opinion no matter how hateful. Granted, one does not have to provide them with the means to do so (such as providing them web space), but to deny someone that right is to endanger our own rights when the political pendulum shifts.



Freedom of religion is another hot button these days. There is a growing movement in America to blur the line between Church and State in dangerous ways. When it comes to Faith and Religion we all walk a very narrow line. While the government can’t establish a state religion, it also is not allowed to “[prohibit] the free exercise thereof”. So while the far right seems to be attempting to establish Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity as the national religion, in violation of the First Amendment, the ACLU seems to be trying to establish a state of freedom FROM religion, also in violation of the First Amendment. Each side is using their opponent as a frightening counterpoint to rally their own troops, with our freedoms in jeopardy from both sides.



Further complicating this issue is the fact that a radical wing of one of the world’s major religions (Islam in this case) seems bent on causing our country physical and economic harm. In this climate, it is increasingly difficult to ensure the Constitutional right of American Muslims to practice their religion, and simultaneously “provide for the common defense” as is spelled out in the preamble of the Constitution.



I now move to a right deemed central by the framers of the Constitution, yet now divided along political lines – specifically the right to bear arms. With a few exceptions on both sides of the aisle, the right tends to support few restrictions on the Right to Bear arms, whereas some on the left would vote to repeal the Second Amendment if they had the chance. The Second Amendment was seen as central to early Americans largely because our nation was created through Revolution against a monarchy. America had no standing army, and it was citizens armed with their own weapons who fired the first shots. Many of the Founding Fathers distrusted large armies and worked to ensure civil supremacy over any military force raised in America, and the “right of revolution” is spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.



I find it interesting that the Conservative wing of the political spectrum at least pays lip service to Americans retaining this right, whereas the left seems to want to convince us that we’ll be “safer” if we can’t protect ourselves. Modern political tendencies seem to bear that out (more conservative people tend to be pro-second rather than vice versa), but that seems to be a relatively modern phenomenon. Given the events of the past six years, is it so hard to imagine a U.S. President concentrating so much authority in the Executive that he (or she) could use the military to enforce martial law? The Constitution was written to prevent that, with the final safeguard being the right to bear arms – yet that right has been eroded nationally, and is almost non-existent in many of America’s most populous areas.



So where does that leave us? We have no devoutly moderate party – moderate has no real meaning in modern politics other than “wishy-washy” or “indecisive”. No one seems to be looking at our rights as spelled out by the Constitution; instead we have two dissimilar visions of people telling us what is good for us and which rights we must sacrifice. Where possible I try to take the broad view – my rights end where another person’s rights begin. I have the right of free speech, unless I am directly slandering an individual. I have the right to practice any religion I want, so long as I’m not using my place of worship to conspire against my countrymen and women. I have the right to bear arms so long as I use them responsibly. I just wish I could find enough people in our government who agreed with me…


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