An excellent comment by Shawn P. OHalloran: In response to someone implying that without government granting them there are no rights. Heres how rights work: No one gives them to you. By your very existence, they are innate to your nature. Whether you believe your creator is God, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a garage owner in Buffalo, or a simple convergence of random events in the Universe, its rather irrelevant to what the founding fathers had in mind when they recited over 2,000 years of metaphysics and philosophy regarding the human condition. Notice the wording as it was specifically chosen. THEY are endowed by THEIR creator, not, WE are endowed by OUR creator or they are endowed by OUR creator or THE creator. Specific language chosen to express the notion that all of us, no matter how we think we got here, have basic rights of existence that may not be infringed upon by any man or government. RULE OF THUMB: you have the innate right to anything you want to do provided that it doesnt interfere with someone elses rights. Ive had to explain this on more than one occasion to people and what I use as an example is women in Muslim countries in the Middle East. The argument is typically, Well those women dont have rights. Its their governments that give them their rights and they dont give them any. My response is very simply this: wrong. Middle East women have the exact same innate rights that every other human being on the planet does despite what their faith teaches and despite what the laws of their country are. Their governments are infringing upon and denying those rights but that doesnt change the fact that they have them. The common problem that you and the writer of this handout suffer from is the inability to distinguish between rights and privileges/entitlements. And when I say common, I mean common as most people dont understand the difference and the entire continent of Europe has spent decades trying to eliminate such distinctions. The constitution is very clear that it does not grant rights. What the constitution does is codify EXACTLY what rights citizens already have and that the government cannot infringe upon them (with the exception of due process of the law). The right to freedom of speech and the right to vote are inherent to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The founding fathers believed that the democratic process in and of itself was a fundamental means to fostering those innate rights. Where people get thrown off is that they believe things such as health care, education and welfare are all rights. Whether you believe that we as citizens should have them or not is irrelevant to the discussion of whether or not they are rights. The distinction between rights and entitlements/privileges is very simply this: rights are innate and are what you have the freedom to do and entitlements/privileges are what is given to you.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:29:12 +0000
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