Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 11/25/2007

The media these days are full of stories where this person or that says “I know my rights” or “I have the right of free speech. Just recently the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to those rights related to the right to “bear arms” that many of us here in Texas take very seriously.
I would guess that few of us actually read the Constitution and think about its meaning and then take the time to consider what it all means when filtered through Common Sense and not the perversions of political correctness, partisan political or legal arguments.
The body of the United States Constitution is relatively short and sets out the only powers granted by “We the people” to the government and specifies what methods must be followed to use them. The first assumption was that “We the people” had all the powers and rights and were allowing our representatives and employees of the government to do certain things for us. That would seem to mean that any amendment to the Constitution in some way should provide a new power that was not previously granted.
This is supported in a statement by Alexander Hamilton during debate on the first amendments to the Constitution. “For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?” It was feared that a judiciary may determine that the amendments meant something different that the attempt to restrict the government from interfering in certain areas of life. This fear seems to be justified as the Supreme Court looks at the right to bear arms as it has religion and others in the past, using the Amendments’ specificity as a way of restricting personal rights rather than protecting them.
At present, even though we are at war, are buffeted daily with the news of one crime more horrendous than the next, a new disease that will kill us all in the coming month or the deterioration of the planet that will drown us all by the end of the decade the average person in the United States is pretty well off. Most are working with only 4 – 6% unemployed (even with 2 million folks in the Country that are not supposed to be). Most, with the largess of the government, even the poor ( who qualify at an income of that may still be in the five figures per year) can get enough to eat and secure shelter. Further, as our new undocumented migrants are showing us, everyone can improve their lot with education and hard work.
The problem is there are only a few that have the courage to go out and protect “the folks” from the most insidious of dangers, our government! It can only be accomplished from inside.
In looking at our “rights” in the area of religious freedom the governments by departing from the idea of not being involved “not making laws respecting the establishment of religion” appear to have supported the concept of a state religion of socialist atheism in preference to the beliefs and practices that prevail. The rights of free expression are trampled on daily when speakers of unpopular beliefs, or points of view, such as support of the government, religious values, or alternate views to climate change are shouted down and physically attacked with no outcry from the government, we elected.  
The worst of it is that we are to blame as we didn’t take the time to learn about the issues, we accepted whatever our friends said. Did it ever occur that the friend might be even less informed! Then we didn’t take the time to use all the information we didn’t have to at least go vote. In the most recent election in November only a very small portion of those eligible to vote actually voted on a very important election. The amendment of the State Constitution must be considered serious. If the issues were not prohibited to the State by the Constitution they could just be passed by the legislature. The result is billions of dollars that are to be repaid by our children and their children have been authorized over the constitutional requirement that the State not assume debt. At the very least voters should be aware of what the issues are and conscientiously make a choice not just let the folks in places like Dallas, Houston, and Austin, tell us what to do at every turn because they voted. In this case the descriptions on the ballot didn’t even fairly represent the actual resolution so even if you voted, had you not read the whole resolution first you may not know that UTB/TSC was one of the beneficiaries.
The lack of attractive candidates in my opinion is one of the things that support this apathy and I for one am pledged to do all I can to help recruit and develop candidates in the coming elections, I want to see all three major parties and several independent candidates as candidates for every office.
Perhaps we can interest some of our military heroes to come to our aid again and share some of their decisiveness and can-do-ability to chart a new direction based on proven successes.
I urge each of you to join a political party, issue interest group, or civil betterment group like the South Texans for Good Government and get active, find out what it is all about, encourage a good person to become a candidate, and support him or her. You don’t have to be a citizen to be involved as you can express your interests, and support candidates as well. Many organizations like the Libertarian Party that I belong to, welcome residents aspiring to citizenship and have special memberships in the party as well as provide help to support them in qualifying for citizenship.
We need to get active and protect the rights we have!
 

1. Brownsville Barrister says:

   November 27, 2007 at 1:41 am

   Hopefully the Supreme Court will remember that the Bill of Rights had 10 amendments. If we disregard the clear mandate of the 2nd Amendment’s right to bear arms because we disagree, then all of our other freedoms have no protection. Of course, I could see some of our current justices holding that the right to “bear arms” merely entitles us to wear tank tops.

   Brownsville Barrister

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