Rights == Risks

I recently wrote on my Facebook page that "all rights pose risks to our country. It is the price tag of freedom".  Here I would like to expand and discuss this further in detail.

Every right we claim as citizens poses a risk to either our personal or national security as it can be exploited by people who wish to hurt or destroy us.

"Freedom of Speech" for example, allows us to say anything about our country.  It doesn't say for example that we have only the freedom to speak the truth only.  We an speak truth or lies, good and evil,  praise or slander.  Those who hate our country are welcome to say whatever they want and in the case of our universities, even get paid for it.  The risk is that our children and grand-children will be brain-washed into believing we are a hate-filled, bigoted, racist, genocide-loving, greedy country that has never done anything right.  We must be willing to take the good with the bad, but we must also be willing to take the verbal-stripes for standing up for what we believe and confronting those who lie about our country's history with the truth.

"Freedom of Religion" poses its own set of risks today.  With Islamic terrorists on the loose who believe a radical form a Islam that wishes to bend every knee in the world (Islam means "to submit") to Allah some in this country may use our "Freedom of Religion" as a way to enforce their beliefs on others.  We cannot forbid them from building their religious buildings or schools in our country, but we can and should shine the light of truth on what they are teaching.   We can and must stand up and say that Radical-Islam is not consistent with our countries beliefs.  We need to understand that other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism do promote the general welfare of our country in teaching, honesty, care for others, hard work, love and appreciation for our government. While Radical Islam does not uphold these values and believes our government must be replaced with a Islamic based form of theocracy.

"Freedom of the Press" poses risks to our society because it does not limit what can be said or printed. Like the Freedom of Speech, it allows others to say in printed (or electronic) form whatever they want.  It actually goes beyond the freedom of speech because it allows more people to be offended than just those within my voices "ear shot".  I can harm people well beyond what a microphone can afford me to do and I can do it with non-verbal forms of communication in the form of pictures as well.  Pornography is an evil that has been around since cavemen have been writing on walls and today there is so much on the internet it boggles the mind. Some argue that the Internet needs to be regulated to limit this kind of material.  While the founding fathers never foresaw the day when we can distribute information as fast as we can today,   we cannot and should not stop it.

"Right to Bear Arms".  This right has received a lot of attention lately with the tragedy at Sandy-Hook.  It goes without saying that having an armed society poses a great deal of risk.  However, our founding fathers saw having an "unarmed society" posed an even greater risk.  Thomas Jefferson himself felt that a revolution was needed about every 25 years or so.  One might argue that the Civil War was made possible by the 2nd Amendment when the southern slave states to attempted to leave the Union.  If it were not for the 2nd Amendment and the free access to guns, the southern states might not have tried to leave the union and would have continued to exert their influence on newly formed states to promote slavery and thereby prolong slavery in our country.  Also, it was what drove our fight for independence in 1776.  When the British came to the Concord bridge in 1775 was it to just pick a fight with the colonists?  No.  It was to seize the guns believed to be stored there and had it not been for the arms they owned, our fight for independence would never had occurred.  In short, Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "Where the people fear the government there is tyranny, where the government fears the people there is freedom".

"Right to Privacy".   This right has been under attack profusely in the last decade since 9-11.   Fear is a major force and is used to manipulate us.  Like the fear induced in the 2nd amendment, we fear the unknown.  We want to know what others might be doing that might harm us.  We, of course, do not believe our actions would ever be called into question, but that OTHER person certainly needs to be examined.  Then one day, WE become that OTHER person and now our activities are under scrutiny.  Those in law enforcement begrudge this right as they say it prevents them from doing their job.  They say it slows them down because they have to go to a judge and prove their need for wire-taps or warrants to search peoples houses.  But that is EXACTLY what the amendment is meant to do.  It is meant to slow down the government because a government that does not have these "brakes" becomes a "run-away-train" capable of doing incredible harm to its citizens.  Our forefathers had no such protections from the British government.  If they suspected you of anything, they could enter your premises and take whatever they felt they needed.  Can terrorists use the right to privacy against us?  Of cource they can.   But making exceptions to the rule eventually leads to it always being the rule rather than the exception. 

    As a society, we have given up many of our privacy rights.  At the airport we expose ourselves to radiation in electronic screening that peer under our clothes looking for guns, knives and explosives.   We allow our wives and daughters to be ogled by old men and touched in areas they should be afforded every form of privacy. All in the name of terrorism.   Many say it's all in the name of "the greater good" but to what limits will the greater good require me to give up my dignity as a human being.  For this is what it privacy is all about.  Dignity.   From our holes in our underwear, to how we look undressed, our privacy affords us our dignity to stand in public unashamed of who or what we are.  When the Nazi's took the Jews into the camps, one of the first things they did was make them undress in full view of the guards.  This was done to steal their dignity and make them feel less than human both in their own eyes but also in the eyes of the guards who would later execute them.  We read story after story and see You-Tube videos all the time of children and the elderly treated horribly by the TSA.  We say "Where is their common sense?  Where is their sense of decency?"  The answer is, they no longer see you and me as humans but only as air-cargo that needs to be shipped somewhere.  You are no more than a faceless, soulless electronic image on a screen. Your dignity as a human being has been erased like a thousand others who have come through their lines.  We allow ourselves to be treated as "guilty until proven innocent" rather than the other way around.

   Do you want to be treated with dignity?  Then you must afford all others that same expectation.
 
"Right to a speedy trial".  We have seen the cases where clearly the person is an evil person by what he has done in the past and now they are caught again.  But the evidence is murky and unclear.  If the police had more time they could maybe make a better case.  We would like to keep such individuals in jail for as long as possible because there they are no risk to us.  Sometimes bad people (ahem... OJ Simpson) get away with crimes they should not, but what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.  Do we want to be kept in jail for years on end (this was what happened to the colonists) without a trial?  Of course not.  So we must take the good with the bad.


Like a teeter-totter where one end only goes up if the other side goes down, freedom (through our exercise of rights) can only go UP if our expectations of being secure go DOWN.