Quote:
Originally Posted by aklim
Just because you believe and they might have doesn't make it so. Maybe it was just the way the language was or maybe they had some religious backing. Either way, our rights come from the Constitution not some man/woman/thing in the sky.
Hopefully it lasts a little longer.
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NO!!!
That is exactly wrong. The point is that our rights existed BEFORE there was any Constitution. The Constitution merely recognized those rights.
If you accept the construction that the Constitution actually grants our Rights, then you set up the situation where the government grants our rights, and therefore the government can deny those rights, or change those rights. At which point they cease to be RIGHTS and fall under the definition of privileges.
I, as a self sufficient human being and citizen of the USA have RIGHTS. I do not beg the government to allow me to speak freely, or to assemble freely with people of my oiwn choosing. I worship at the church of my own choosing; not by the permission of the government. The press is free to print whatever it wants without persecution from the ruling classes--except if they strat into areas of lible.
Please understand that these rights exist apart from the government--thatis what makes them rights.
I don't see how there can even be any argument over this. This is so basic to understanding what this American experiment in a democratic republic was all about. If even this basic understanding is lost, then the country is already lost. This is not a partisan issue. Can't we all agree on it?