Patriotic Exercises

Your Rights –

When the founders of the country were trying to gather together the individual states into one country, they drafted a beautiful Constitution.  Two groups argued over it because one side said that it gave the Federal Government too much power and that a government with ultimate power would eventually turn into a tyranny.  The other side wanted a strong central government because they saw how the loose grouping of States formed by the Articles of Confederation didn’t serve to protect and join the individual states well enough.  In order compromise, the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution were drafted to keep the rights of the people alive in the eyes of the government – they are the Bill of Rights.

 

The problem with both the federal government and the Bill of Rights is that the government, all governments – like children – will always push the boundaries, testing their limits until they find where they can advance no further.  The Constitution is the be all and end all of the powers of the government.  If it isn’t it there – it isn’t SUPPOSED to be able to do it.  But, like a child, the government has gone well beyond the limits imposed by its parents (the Founders) and continues to push itself out – growing and growing, sucking up power like a black hole.

 

The people are supposedly protected by the Bill of Rights.  However, unless the people force the government to abide by those rights, they are useless.  Rights are like muscles and if they are not flexed, they atrophy until they have no power.  It is up to the people to exercise those rights and to keep the government in check by doing so.  Everyone KNOWS what their rights are – theoretically – but few choose to make the government abide by them.  Let’s look at the Bill of Rights real quick:

 

Amendment I [Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, Petition (1791)] – Many of us DO stand up for this right when we write our blogs and talk about politics and religion and we choose to believe what we want to believe.  We hold this right to be the most important of our rights with good reason.  Without it, we have no voice.

Amendment II [Right to Bear Arms (1791)] – This right is very controversial because some people think that the right only applies to militias or National Guardsmen, but the founders seems to have been pretty clear that this was an individual right, not a collective one.  The Supreme Court has agreed with the right of the individual.  The importance of this right cannot be overstated.  This is the right that protects the others – without it, the government can come along, strip the people of their rights and we’re back to tyranny.  An armed populace is much harder to silence.  Now, even though many people have this right, many do not flex it.  Those who do are doing the work of the rest against a strong anti-gun community.  Gun bans are unconstitutional, but they still happen.  Guns have been villianized by the media and some sectors of the government.  Guns don’t kill people, people do.  I could leave my Glock on the kitchen table, locked and loaded, from now until the end of time and it would never, ever go off – much less kill anyone.  However, I could take two people and leave them alone in a room and eventually, one will kill the other with whatever is available.  Those who carry guns legally are rarely those who use them illegally.  Those who carry in the open, with their gun exposed, may draw more attention to themselves, but they also draw attention to the fact that it is a right to carry a weapon publically and to not be intimidated by the fact that in many areas it has become “socially inacceptable” to do so.  Guns used to be common sights across the country, but since the liberal mindset has taken over, the evil guns have been quietly hidden away, locked in cabinets and finally sold to some “gun nut” because they are rarely, if ever used.  A complacent society that surrenders their right to carry firearms concedes the rest of their rights as well.

Amendment III [Quartering of Troops (1791)]  - Not too much issue on this one right now.  Most Soldiers have their own homes.

Amendment IV [Search and Seizure (1791)] – Many people surrender this right everyday when they allow their homes or vehicles to be searched without cause because “they have nothing to hide” or “its more convenient.”  Police don’t have a right to search your car or person unless you have committed a crime and been arrested.  You don’t have to let them “check your trunk.”  Even at the WalMart we surrender this right when we let the kindly old man at the door check our receipts.  Sure, its easier, but it isn’t their right to check your stuff.  Once you pay for it, its yours!  Walk away.  Even if the little alarm goes off, you have no obligation to stop – and they have no cause to stop you.  Flex your rights, start at WalMart.  It doesn’t make you an asshole, it just makes you a concerned citizen.

Amendment V [Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process (1791)] – We were doing ok with this, until the Patriot Act.  And that’s a WHOLE ‘nother blog.  I’ll get to it, someday soon.

Amendment VI [Criminal Prosecutions - Jury Trial, Right to Confront and to Counsel (1791)] – Same as above.

Amendment VII [Common Law Suits - Jury Trial (1791)] – I think we’re ok here.

Amendment VIII [Excess Bail or Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment (1791)] – I think we’re ok here too.  Some would argue that the death penalty is cruel and unusual, but that too is a long discussion.

Amendment IX [Non-Enumerated Rights (1791)] – This one means that ANYTHING NOT SPECIFICALLY GIVEN TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE CONSTITUTION doesn’t exist to it.  We’ve let the government get so far out of hand that it’ll be very difficult to reign back in (until 2028).

Amendment X [Rights Reserved to States (1791)] – The states and the individuals have the powers not given to the federal government.

Ok, so, the moral of the story is – do you patriotic exercises and flex your rights.