What is left to say about an out of all measurable bounds political party morphing into a pseudo religious death cult that wants nothing more than for you to die for their so-called cruel and often inhuman, possibly deadly exercising of their right to “freedom”.
You know, using the Constitution as a fake morality crutch for the proposition they and they alone are worthy of election (the Hobby Lobby loonies), or the beneficiaries of natural selection, and the only persons on this planet whose rights are worthy of protection. Why they take this position I do not know.
However, I suspect it is at least in part guilt driven, as there must be some part of their dark, twisted and confused at best souls that sees the damage being done to the rights of those they do not like.
You know, persons of color who want to vote. An abomination I tell you! Or perhaps those who think abortion is but one aspect of a woman’s reproductive/familial rights. Blasphemy! Or, those who merely value science over a Biblical, doggerel fairy tale or two in matters related to their health, well-being, life, and death. Heretical!
In addition to mistaking our Creator’s grace in all matters for a mandate to do someone else wrong is a sin and although the Constitution is quite the document, it is not meant to nor can it be utilized as a curative for the faith-inspired misdeeds of mice and men.
For of the wisdom contained within the 2,543 words that make up our Constitution, it is still, and will always be a piece of paper with some quills dipped in ink scratches. My rights, your rights, everyone’s rights are God-given and identified in the Declaration of Independence. You know, the natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The bottom line of all Constitutional analysis is not to grant rights, but to protect them from undue Governmental interference. As your rights are inalienable, the Constitution including the Bill of Rights is written in the negative.
Note how the First Amendment starts with “Congress shall make no law…” The Constitution tells us what the Government cannot do to the rights you already possess, bestowed by His grace and glory as part of the human experience.
At best, the Constitution protects your rights, your tools to use, unimpeded by the whims of the legislature, executive, judicial, against the will of the masses, in our shared venture to build a more perfect union.
However, all rights have their limits and at some point, the interests of the many must take precedent over the whims, wishes, follies and foibles of the few. I state categorically and for the record, that no rights are absolute. Not those contained in the First Amendment, and most assuredly not those contained in the Second Amendment.
The idea that the right to “bear arms” is absolute is nonsense. It is also a sign of a world that finds itself no longer capable of “legitimate political discourse” and substitutes violence as the final arbiter of all matters related to the exercise of what supposedly constitutes good governance in our society.
Might makes right, the ends justify the means, Make America Great Again, all those lovely but untrue aphorisms, slags and sayings that stink of false patriotism and go further than hint at the preference for an authoritarian regime, a dictatorship by means of a single person representing the will of the people.
While it is true that as part of a democracy, We, the People can vote away our rights to be free. There have been many times throughout history where in the name of national security or threats to the “national identity” persons the world over were willing to sacrifice personal freedoms to feel “safe”.
Isn’t this why we proudly call America the land of the free, because we are free, and the home of the brave, because when times are tough, the brave fight back. The brave fight for justice and equality. In America, the bravest of the brave are those who understand our individual freedom includes any number of duties and obligations to society. In short, to make the world, and hence our lives and yes, the future, more perfect, or better, for everyone.
Have we forgotten that the lessening of one individual’s rights does harm to all our rights? Isn’t it true our natural obligations as individuals to the population can only be exercised legitimately by starting with a citizen’s oath, something along the lines of do no harm to the rights of others in your quest to exercise your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, thou shalt not pursue thine own happiness at the expense of another person’s right to do likewise.
Is this not also the way to acknowledge our rights are celestial in nature? And that we can transcend the ordinary, routine and mundane not just by quoting scripture and verse, but by aspiring to emulate the actions of our Father, treating each of his children as brothers and sisters, as family? For that is indeed what we are.
It is true families will squabble from time to time, yet the only place anything other than care, kindness and a willingness to listen, rather than talk, shout, deride and denigrate the individual for what they may believe? Even if you are “right” and he/she/they are “wrong”?
What we should be focused on is not in unilaterally forcing our beliefs, views and will upon those who disagree, but in educating to the best of our abilities our reasoning and positions on all matters including politics and religion as if for no other reason than to honor our shared human experiences, and well, do the right thing?
Let people learn for themselves utilizing their common sense and logic to recognize the true meaning of “love thy neighbor” rather than demand blind obedience, no questions asked, to an ideal for living that may be anything but hospitable to those who, well, don’t share the same views you do.
Recently, we have seen not the first and certainly not the last effort to obliterate the lines between Church and State. Too many times have we witnessed the violent acts, most notably the failed January 6th insurrection, attributable to, I’ll call it confusion, between the roles of the secular and sectarian in the functioning of our democratic republic, of, by and for the People.
We are not a theocracy by design. We do not have a national or even a state sanctioned religion for a reason. What I welcome and I trust you do too, is the opportunity to re-open the lines of political communication between all America in an effort not to exploit our differences, but to the find those common points we all can agree on and go from there.
Form what I remember, this is how “legitimate political discourse” starts and if memory also serves, the way we, as true patriotic Americans have gotten where we are as still the greatest nation on Earth today.
So, can we say, let the legitimate political discourse begin? I’m in. How about you?
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Loved it! I particularly liked your line, "thou shalt not pursue thine own happiness at the expense of another person’s right to do likewise."