(And If You Still Don’t Get It, There’s No Hope For You)

Time and time again I have written about rights, about liberty, yet people still do not seem to get it. Either people are obtuse, (slow to understand or perceive something), or they simply do not care.

The Preamble to the Constitution is a generalized statement, outlining the purpose for which that document was written. It states, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

When the Bill of Rights was ratified, the ten amendments it comprised became part of that Constitution; therefore the protection of those amendments became the duty of government.

The government did not grant us those rights, nor did the Bill of Rights grant them to us. All the Bill of Rights did was to declare that these rights existed and that the rights mentioned were off limits to infringement by government. By government I mean to say that NO local ordinance, no state law, and no federal law can infringe upon ANY of those rights.

Our nation’s second president, John Adams, once said, “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe.” Antecedent means something that happens or exists before something else.

Therefore, no government, even if it is acting on behalf the majority of the people, can repeal or restrain those rights. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.” So, even if 99% of the people are in favor of a law which violates the right of 1% of the people, the 99% are guilty of a crime, as are those legislators who enact any law simply because the majority of the people demand it.

Our first president, George Washington once said, “The power under the constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes…” Do you understand that word, defined? It means that we the people granted our government certain specific powers which are spelled out in unambiguous terms.

James Madison declared, “The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.” So, when the representatives of the people, at any level of government, pass a law which restricts the people’s ability to freely exercise their rights, it is government which is committing a crime, not the individual who chooses to exercise their rights.

When Madison proposed the Bill of Rights to the House of Representatives in 1789, he said, “That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.”

So, if one of the duties of our government is to protect our rights, then according to Madison, if government no longer performs that duty, we the people have the right to reform or change it. That is the entire premise upon which the Declaration of Independence was written, stating, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

Yet when people talk about limiting the powers of government to those specifically enumerated in the Constitution, it is they who are considered the criminals who refuse to obey the law. When in fact it is actually the opposite, it is the government which refuses to obey the law. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

Because we, or more accurately YOU, do not know what the Constitution says, YOU have allowed the government to deprive people of rights which government was SUPPOSED to protect.

Do I have the right to deprive you of food or water? No, why not, that right is NOT listed in the Bill of Rights. You say you have the right to eat and drink? Show me where it says so! Do I have the right to say you cannot watch television? No? Again, show me where it says you have that right.

Yet, I have the right to keep and bear arms, as is clearly stated in the Second Amendment, but YOU, because YOU feel safer with all these restrictions upon gun ownership, have deprived ME of a right WHICH IS among those listed in the Bill of Rights.

Our government is not going to tell you these things. Do you honestly believe that a man, or a body of men, whose purpose is to enslave you, is going to educate you concerning your rights?

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (administrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”

That is similar to the wording Jefferson used when drafting the Declaration of Independence, “…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism…” But Jefferson continued by saying, “…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

One of the biggest opponents to the Constitution was Patrick Henry, who once said, “My great objection to this government is, that it does not leave us the means of defending our rights or of waging war against tyrants.”

I don’t think even Patrick Henry could have foreseen that the people of this country would become so ignorant, so apathetic, when it comes to their rights, that they would bend over and let their government screw them, while they begged for more.

I’m sickened by it, and I am pretty safe in saying that our founders are looking down upon this country from heaven in disgust at what we have allowed to happen. Our nation’s sixth president, John Quincy Adams, once said, “Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” Were he alive today I would bet that he would have some harsh words for the people of this country who have forgotten, not only how much it cost his generation to secure our rights, but that people have surrendered them willingly just to feel a bit safer and more secure. And, as Ben Franklin said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

So, if you still don’t get it, or don’t care, then there is absolutely no hope for you. As far as I’m concerned you are pathetic, and undeserving of the blessings that this country had to offer. But don’t you dare say that I am unpatriotic or treasonous, because it is your government, by virtue of having deprived me of my unalienable rights, that is guilty of THAT crime.

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com.

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