Having been gone so long from this task, I have been quite tentative about returning to our conversations. I will sum up my absence by simply saying that it was unavoidable and is now ended. Sometimes in life you find that you have responsibilities which cannot be ignored. And no, I wasn’t in jail.
I did, in my time away from you, monitor the news as best I could. I watched the slow reduction in the GOP primary candidates (we’ll talk a lot about them in weeks to come), I watched with interest the rise of the Occupy movement and then in disgust at the government and law enforcement responses. (All I’ll say about that is when the citizens of Egypt rose up and protested their government, ours praised them; when American citizens rose up and protested their government, it belittled, slandered, and abused in some cases, those citizens – and we’re the ones with free speech rights. Watching as unarmed protesters, sitting peacefully on the ground, were soaked down with tear gas made me very ashamed of my government.
While I was gone, I took some time to think about the changes both on the way and the ones that have happened in the last dozen or so years and it has left me with a chilling realization that nobody has been able to shake me from. That realization is simply that we are in the last days of America as our founders envisioned. This is hard for people to hear and most will say that I am flat wrong, but the signs are everywhere, everyday and they are growing.
When those, unqualified, but well meaning British gentlemen gathered in Philadelphia and began to discuss what exactly this new nation they wanted to build should be, there were many different ideas. Some wanted a sort of monarchy or feudal lord system because it was familiar and comforting. But the majority knew that what was needed was something never before seen; a free and sovereign nation where the people were not subservient, but rather were the true power of the nation. They were right.
Through the years the Constitution (which is a fluid document – otherwise you couldn’t make amendments), has remained the guiding rule for government and a civil rights insurance policy for the people. But slowly, beginning in the mid to late 20th century, the policy began to be manipulated and twisted through fractured interpretations, so that many of the protections we are due as the intended power of the country, have been stripped away.
I would like to spend a little time over the next few blogs discussing what I think we have lost and see if I can convince you where we are headed, while there still may be time for us to stop it.
On March 4th 1789, the members of the First United States Congress met in New York to hammer out the law of the land. One part of this turned out to be a Bill of Rights. Something that was not unanimously thought to be a good idea; luckily for us there were more Jeffersonians than Hamiltonians and so we received those very important first ten amendments. That is what we shall study.
Amendment 1 - Point by Point
Congress shall make no law respecting an established religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; - Okay, this should be a simple statement to grasp but nonetheless it is debated endlessly. It simply says that our government can’t make Catholicism or Mormonism or Protestantism or Voodoo the officially sanctioned religion of America. While in point of fact no law has ever been passed naming a national religion, it was still found to be acceptable to put “In God We Trust” on our currency and insert “Under God” into the pledge of allegiance in the 1950’s. Our government holds national prayer breakfasts, and I don’t know of a single president (in my lifetime at least) that has not said, “God bless America.” The old saying that actions speak louder than words is evident here for anyone who will see it; We the People have allowed our government to present to the world the face of a Christian Theocracy that tolerates, to a certain extent, those who believe otherwise. If this were not the case, a fanatical Christian like Rick Santorum couldn’t be seriously considered for the GOP nomination. Look. I don’t want a fanatical anything – Muslim, Christian, Zionist, Jew or Wiccan, you name the flavor – to be elected president. I don’t mind if my elected officials are spiritual, I just want them to keep it to themselves and not shove it down the country’s collective throat. As far as government as an entity is concerned, if one belief is represented, all must be, or you are violating both the establishment and free exercise portions of the amendment. One last thing about what the founders thought. I believe that most of them were Christian and when they used words like “creator” most were thinking of the Christian God, but not all were. There were some humanists and even some agnostics who worked to hammer out our founding documents. The words were chosen carefully though so as not to identify the creator. That way each citizen was free to interpret it in their own way. Congress shall make no law respecting an established religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; What’s so hard about understanding that?
. . . or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; - Ask yourself this question; “Am I free to say anything I want?” The answer is no. Aside from the old “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” or the more recent “you can’t yell bomb on an airplane,” clichés, there are a great many things we are not permitted to say, that under the constitution, we are lawfully permitted to say. For instance, you are by law permitted to walk up to the fence that surrounds the White House and begin chanting F-you at the residents. So long as your words are not accompanied by an act or threat of violence, you are not breaking any laws and you are exercising your first amendment rights. However, you will be forcibly removed, made to stop your chant and most likely jailed. They will probably charge you with disorderly conduct and you will face a little jail or a hefty fine or both. Your free speech has just been abridged.
As far as the press goes, the financial market is driving the direction of press freedom more than the government. But with the new media formats such as this one we are using right now, come attempts by the government to exert control over the internet. (We’ll touch on this more when we get to the 4th Amendment).
. . . or the right of the people to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. We have briefly touched on the assembly issue with the way that federal, state and local governments are dealing with the Occupy movement. For my friends in the TEA Party, it could just as easily be one of your gatherings that could be interrupted by law enforcement. You don’t really believe they would do it, and they will be hesitant, because some of you are armed, but make no mistake, if the government felt like you were possibly raising enough of a fuss to actually threaten the establishment (not the party balance, but the real power players) they would and could shut you down. They have more and better weapons and equipment, I don’t care what you have, it’s not enough. As far as a redress of grievances, that has become the sole realm of the Supreme Court, which is kept stocked by elected officials.
Now for the hardest to accept part of my argument;
There is no one to blame but ourselves.
It’s true. For all the ranting and raving that both the politically active and ignorant do about “how the damn politicians are ignoring us and doing what they want” and blah, blah, blah . . . it is the American people who have allowed these abuses to take root. It happens because of the team mentality – two party system we have. We are quick to criticize and demand concessions from those on the other side of the aisle, but silent when our guy or gal is doing the same thing. I heard damn few Republicans criticize President Bush when he enacted the PATRIOT Act because it was for our safety, but the Democrats were vocal. Then a few years later when President Obama kept the Act in place and then stiffened it by giving the office the right to arrest and detain American Citizens indefinitely the Republicans were beside themselves, but the Democrats were for the most part silent.
Hey, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, so it’s not like this is something new.
We are letting them take our rights away for the sake of what? Safety? I am now becoming more concerned about what my government is going to do to me than I am about what some terrorist might try to do. I have a chance against a terrorist; I stand no chance against a power hungry empire.
This one ran long, I guess because I’m happy about being back. I’ll shoot for brevity in the future. Next time we’ll look at the realities of the Second Amendment. Lock and load.
