Monday, May 15, 2006

Natural Rights

For those that argue our Constitution was set up to empower the Feds to restrict and control who people may or may not do business with (including "illegal aliens"), I point to this little excerpt:
[Art.] 2. [Natural Rights.] All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights - among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting, property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this state on account of race, creed, color, sex or national origin. - NH State Constitution 1784
Granted, it is the New Hampshire state Constitution, but I think it paints a pretty good picture of the thought processes and values of the people at the time. Note the phrase "or national origin". It seems those patriots from yesteryear recognized that a person's natural-born rights were not dependent upon the geographic locality under which they were born, nor a function of some artificial construct called "citizenship". These patriots recognized that the purpose of a Constitution was to restrict the power of politicians to infringe upon individual rights and liberties.... rights and liberties possessed by ALL men, in ALL places, at ALL times.

So...when you ask the Feds to keep dark-skinned, non-English speakers from moving to America, seeking opportunities to improve their lot...and insist at the same time that you do not need Federal permission to change your address...at least have the intellectual honesty to assert that the Founding Fathers were wrong. Have the courage of your convictions to admit that you oppose the principles this country was founded upon. Stand up and admit that you feel that there is no such thing as "rights", but only "priveleges"... government granted priveleges doled out to slaves.

1 Comments:

Blogger David_Z said...

The Natural Rights/Natural law theory of justice is infinitely more palatable than the "Social Utility Theory of Justice" advanced by J. Bentham, which unfortunately is all too prevalent a belief in the world today.

6:20 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home