Liberty: Use It or Lose It!

Paragraph two of the Declaration of Independence begins: “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.”

These days it seems that some are under the impression that our unalienable rights are the work of government. That is wrong; rights that are unalienable, or as the word is rendered today, inalienable, are rights that are “incapable of being surrendered or transferred.” Such rights are part and parcel of our condition as human beings and are endowed by the Creator as understood by the Founders.

In fact, the job of government is to protect those rights. The Declaration went on to establish that fact and informs us that “…to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Government is not to encroach or infringe on these rights as if government is the source of such rights, rather we understand that government was established to secure and establish those rights and thus government is established and serves at the pleasure of the people.

In light of the recent scandals involving the IRS and Justice Department the following question was posed to Miss Alabama, Mary Margaret McCord, during the Miss USA pageant: “Government tracking of phone records has been in the news lately. Is this an invasion of privacy or necessary to keep our country safe? Why or why not?”

Ms. McCord responded: “I think the society that we live in today, it’s sad that if we go to the movies or to the airport or even to the mall that we have to worry about our safety. So I would rather someone track my telephone messages and feel safe wherever I go than feel like they’re, um, encroaching on my privacy.”

The first thing that Ms. McCord’s response makes clear is that she is not qualified to answer such a question. One might wonder what she learned about the founding of our country while in school to answer in such a manner. On the other hand…

New Jersey is in the process of passing laws that require gun ownership information to be imbedded in the New Jersey automobile license card. Some might think this is a good idea but I’m wondering why a law officer who has stopped me for a minor traffic infraction, say a broken tail light, has to know what firearms I possess. In fact, as a law-abiding citizen of the United States, the Constitution guarantees that my right “to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” and I believe that I am entitled to a little privacy.

The liberties that we have enjoyed and seem to take for granted in that we are willing to give them up so easily as expressed by Miss Alabama, have come at great cost. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence closed that document with this sentence: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor.”

Maybe you are not aware that these individuals were putting it all on the line. A failure in what they were attempting to do was their ruination. There was no turning back and there was no half-way point. What was being attempted was the institution of a brand new means of governing; government of, by, and for the people.

“If you have done nothing wrong then you should have nothing to hide.” The mentality expressed in that statement has prompted many to justify giving up their privacy via such regulations as virtual strip searches at the airport including the practice of making mothers drink their own  breast milk, the infant and infirm-elderly having to remove diapers, and colostomy bags fiddled with just to name a few.

“If you don’t break the law you won’t get a ticket.” In the name of safety such a justification has been made on the Patch for red-light cameras which is just a smoke-screen to build revenue on the backs of locals through an $85 penalty tax for being foolish enough to drive and shop the Blackwood-Clementon Road corridor. I wonder why that strip is so desolate.

“Give me liberty or give me death.” Wow, remember when that actually had meaning?

“We now have so many regulations that everyone is guilty of something” (Donald Alexander).