Patriot. Sacrifice. Honor. Constitution. Rights. Freedom. Liberty.
Do these words hold real meaning anymore?
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, & our sacred Honor.
Are these just flowery words of a bygone era? Do they stir anything within you, or are they just phrases you learned about in grade school, written long ago when the world was different and men routinely engaged in hyperbole as a means of expressing themselves?
Does the Declaration of Independence mean anything to you? Is it alive today just as it was in 1776? Or is just another artifact of the Revolutionary era like a musket ball or a rusty belt buckle once warn by someone in the Continental Army?
Does the Constitution hold meaning and import today? We hear and read all the time about the ACLU defending peoples' rights to say what they want thus showing support of the 1st amendment, or defending someone's privacy thus showing support of the 4th amendment. Most of us expect to be treated within the bounds of the law. We expect religious freedom. We expect to be able to meet in groups, large or small, to discuss political issues or any topic we want. We know we are free to send an email, make a phone call, write a letter, or speak personally to our representatives to voice our concerns.
What would you think if our freedom of speech, our rights to meet with others to talk about all kinds of issues, our freedom to worship -- or not -- as we please, or our freedom to contact those who represent us in government were declared illegal?
We repel in horror at the idea of being stoned to death for being a victim of a crime. We repel at the idea that one religion must trump all others; that outright banning of some religions but not others is wrong. We oppose a governing body telling us how to dress or what we may or may not say or when we must pray and to whom.
In other words, we take the Bill of Rights seriously, at least in part and at least some of the time. Some part of us rejects the notion of living under a dictator and respects the rule of law with the people being in charge. But what about everything else in the Constitution? Do you know what it says? Do you care?
Is that the way it's supposed to work? Should we be "cafeteria Constitionalists", picking and choosing those things we like and ignoring all the rest, either out of ignorance or in order to advance an agenda?
No. We must not, and here is the reason why: when we ignore the parts of the Constitution we don't really care about or even disagree with, we open the doors wide to having those portions of the Constitution we hold dear taken from us. It's an all-or-nothing deal. When we give government, through our own silence and inaction, the authority to ignore some of the Constitution, we send a message that any part of the Constitution may be ignored including those parts you take for granted.
Can we reasonably believe that our personal preferences will always be upheld while all the rest of the Supreme Law of the Land may be ignored? Can we be reasonably assured the government will operate as it should and to our benefit if we, as voters, do not keep a check on potential governmental abuses of the Constitution, even if those abuses are not ones we really care about all that much?
Of course not!
Please, dear reader, take a moment to re-read the Declaration of Independence. Let it sink in. Realize the degree to which the British Crown had broken its own laws to the detriment of those living in the original 13 colonies, and, more importantly, realize the degree to which those who signed their names to that document put themselves, their families, their wealth and their property in peril. Read and learn what those who signed the Declaration of Independence lost because they had the courage to demand liberty and freedom -- that same liberty and freedom you take for granted today.
Thank you bkt of conservativesforum.com for the contribution to CSA