Years ago I asked my students to take out a piece of paper and make a list of everything that the government was supposed to provide for us. I asked them not to write their names on the paper, but just make a list. This exercise is not original with me. A professor at a university in Florida did this years ago, and I was curious to learn what my students thought. I was also trying to help them find a good persuasive speech topic.
Most of the lists included items like national defense, infrastructure, and law and order. The top item on one list was “more money.” Other lists included free college education, a good job, and a good house in a nice neighborhood. Remember, the lists were supposed to be what the government owed us.
When our founders declared our independence from Great Britain, they laid out their views of governments and rights of the people. “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….” More than one of our founders struggled with the issue of slavery while writing the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, but the delegations and congresses were too divided to resolve one of the most divisive issues of that day.
Nevertheless, the founders wholly agreed that “certain unalienable Rights” are given by the “Creator” of men. Presumably, the founders had this in mind when they wrote and approved the Bill of Rights. Having won the war of independence from a tyrannical government, the founders wanted to spell out clearly the people’s rights that could not be taken away by an oppressive government.
The First Amendment forbade the government from establishing a religion or from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Other rights in the amendment included freedom of speech and the press, the right to assemble peaceably, and the right to petition the government “for a redress of grievances.”
Likewise, the Second Amendment recognized the people’s right “to keep and bear arms” as a necessary means of securing “a free state.” Needless to say, Freedom of the people from the government was a keystone of both documents, especially as enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
Debates over “rights” in America have certainly degenerated from the lofty ideals our founders wrestled with. Though they never debated who could marry whom or how to define a woman, recent Supreme Court decisions and legislation have pitted genders against genders in an ever-expanding list of genders.
In 1973 the Supreme Court discovered abortion in the Constitution and made it a right of every woman … way back when only women could get pregnant. In 2022 the Supreme Court said abortion is not in the Constitution, and that individual states should make their own laws about abortion, the same thought espoused by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Sadly, a large percentage of Americans today, perhaps even a majority think in terms of what the government owes them in terms of financial benefits or in terms of rights. Are schools teaching students the government owes us free stuff? What is the end of America’s great expectations?
20 comments:
I'm shocked DL is a teacher of anything!
I love how he left out " A well regulated militia being essential to a free state" as the first words of the Second Amendment. You yahoos gave up a State controlled militia ( National Guards) to prevent having to serve yourselves instead of play "militia on weekends.
No citizen service for you guys!
We are suffering the ignorance of men who never had to serve their country and learn why rules and laws are important or how to cooperated with others.
And, yes, DL ( though you didn't mean to imply such), the Founders never thought they had to get into the personal business of sex or personal decisions about medical issues( unless public health was involved...Washington required smallpox vaccinations for his army as an ORDER).
That DL teaches in Starkville is scary. Sure hope it's not at MSU. If so, he's a poster boy for the problem with tenure...professors can lose their minds !
D.L.
Please feel free to return any Social Security payments,Medicare funds that you or your family have received. The last thing a man like you should tolerate is socialism,
So Danny is a Communications professor? He teaches public speaking.
Well, obvious it wasn't history or civics or the law!
Studied at the School of Gobbels?
Now, now, there's no need to strike at the writer in a jealous rage because you don't have the wherewithal to have an article printed.
I have conflicted emotions when reading the expectations of the future leaders of our country. I am both, sad, and amused. A lazier bunch would be hard to find.
Thanks to the propaganda being taught in public, and private, schools, it is a well hidden secret that the republic founded in 1776 was given a death blow by a man publicized as a hero. That blow and the accumulation, of subsequent blows in the 160, or so, years since has allowed the mob rule of democracy to take its place.
Looking down the road, it's plain to see that even the democracy, that replaced the republic, is soon to be replaced by something else. What exactly remains to be seen.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”
This quote didn't originate with me, but it should be remembered by all men that want to live free.
DL’s heart is in the right place. However, he only has a superficial, midwit-tier understanding of just what is going on. Most people don’t want to know. Because it is darker and more disturbing that most people can imagine.
What really disturbs me is how all of these burned and demolished meat processing plants are being replaced with automation that appears to be designed to process bipedal carcasses.
Name of the school please.
"In 1973 the Supreme Court discovered abortion in the Constitution and made it a right of every woman … way back when only women could get pregnant."
Clever. Very clever.
I often wonder if people read DL's tomes before they write these asinine attacks on his thoughts.
Geez...This blog has the writings of Crawford and Salter. And people complain about Garner?
11:03 said: "I'm shocked DL is a teacher of anything!"
The IHL gave tenure to the nut at Ole Miss who called on students to go to restaurants and squish their hands through the food of Trump supporters.
I have a relative who worked with an instructor at USM who lost her job because she didn't use feminine pronouns to describe a male student.
I agree with 11:03, I'm shocked when universities employ instructors who affirm reality and reason.
Interstate highways, K-12 schools and universities, hospitals, 6 branches of the US military service, space exploration, sewage and water service, garbage pickup, cable fiber and broadband, gas and electricity service, locating underground lines.
Police and firefighting and EMT's, dogcatchers.
Social security, old age, disability benefits.
Medicare and Medicaid.
Free vaccines and treatment for Covid, polio, monkeypox.
Physical fitness - volleyball courts, fat fitness camps, public speakers who teach about Jesus. And drug rehabilitation. A horse farm in Flora. Concussion cream. Advertising on Supertalk Radio and Family First of Mississippi.
Just off the top of my head.
@11:03 Since the correlation between previous cowpox infection and relative immunity to smallpox was first published in 1796, I don't see how Washington would have required his troops to be vaccinated against smallpox. Even small things matter.
11:03
Yes, you are suffering from ignorance.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the Security of a free State..." - is not an absolute or controlling part of the amendment.
No, that introductory subordinate clause simply provides one of the reasons, and most likely a primary reason due to the purpose of a constitution, to enumerate the protection of said right. It does not prescribe how that right is to be utilized, it simply denotes an important aspect of why it shall not be infringed.
No one can, legally and/or logically, conclude that the sentence construction somehow limits an individual's right to a single collective necessity. Mainly because the Constitution does not confer any rights. It simply enumerates some that is recognized to already exist that should be protected. The reasons for the right doesn't matter, except in explanation. The 2nd Amendment, as with all of the "Bill of Rights", were purposed to guarantee protection, specifically to that/those enumerated basic rights.
By the way, no other right enumerated uses such strong and unambiguous language as "shall not be infringed."
@12:34, What you say is true, but to leftists, there's no distinction between a democracy and a republic. They're just synonyms.
Reasoning with leftists is a fool's errand, wasted breath, clouds of CO2 contributing to one's carbon footprint. There is no dialog with them. The right plays for principles; the left plays for keeps. It's why the leftists are succeeding in placing their agenda while the right points out hypocrisies about which the left doesn't care and only laughs about.
@12:34
@11:03 for over 50 years has been published (research findings, articles and a graduate level text book translated and published worldwide by Wiley & Sons).
Also ,newspapers have published speeches given.
11:03 has also worked in government and had a security clearance while doing so.
DL is an elderly communications (speech) professor. It's that "basket weaving" kind of easy course students take to get credit hours. I suspect many athletes take his course.
Unlike you, I think it's important to know something about the expertise(or lack thereof) and biases of the writer before being influenced by them.Being a pleasant, sometimes humorous also true. I'd be happy to take seriously his lecture notes on giving speeches ...I'm not so sure about communication in general as his understanding of human behavior seems rather outdated.
"It simply enumerates some that is recognized to already exist that should be protected. The reasons for the right doesn't matter, except in explanation. The 2nd Amendment, as with all of the "Bill of Rights", were purposed to guarantee protection, specifically to that/those enumerated basic rights."
No.
The "Bill of Rights" (the first 10 Amendments) conveys no rights from the government to the people. Exactly the reverse. Nor does it offer any "guarantees" to citizens to think, say, or do any specific or general thing(s). It was a compromise listing of particularly selected restrictions upon "government," originally the Federal government later expanded under the terms of the Constitution by the SCOTUS to include state governments. The 1st does not guarantee anyone, press or not, the right to say anything they wish, do anything they wish as long as they call it religion, etc. it simply restricts "Congress" from making laws that prohibit certain things. Similarly, the 2nd does not say that anyone is entitled to or even may possess any weapon, any time, any place. It does not require membership in some undefined "militia" to keep and bear arms. It simply prohibits government from "infringing" on that right ("infringe" does not mean "make any law at all," it means today the same as it meant in the late 1700s, look it up).
In particular, see the 9th, about who "owns" the rights:
"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
(Just in case, "enumeration" means "listing," "reciting," not "granting")
and the 10th, about who "owns" the power:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
However, keep in mind that while it is relatively easy to delegate authority it is impossible to delegate responsibility.
August 14, 2022, at 10:30 AM, anyone can say anything on a chat board, give the name, prove what you say.
For years the government has been taking care of people who do not want to work. In some families they haven't had a working member of the family in three generations. Imagine if you were a young person from a family where no one has had a job in three generations and the question was asked of you.
“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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men”.
The machine, that masquerades in Washington, D.C. as a government of the people, is not the protector of our GOD given rights, or natural rights as some call. It has transitioned, to become a terror to those it should defend, a parasite robbing the citizenry of the fruit of their labor.
Selling its power and influence to the highest bidder, or lobbyist as they are known. An immoral tyrant that will grind through the gears of the justice system the poorer members of our society. These citizens have no money, power, or influence, and are prosecuted without mercy.
The Constitution, that the members of the machine swore an oath to, is still the law of the land, supposedly. They hypocritically ignore it, and abuse the GOD given rights of the citizens while using policy, codes, and statutes to justify their rulings.
It seems, in my opinion, the country I love, that has allowed so many to be blessed, is on a steep, steep, grade with no one to stop her demise. May GOD have mercy on her, and us.
3:13 PM I know a lot of those people and it is a lot more than three generations. I know some Delta farmers who are in their sixth and seventh generation where no one has ever held a job, never got their hands dirty, never done anything, they don't pay taxes and live off federal subsidies. Same with lots of trust fund elders (they used to call them trust fund babies but they got old despite the botox) in Madison, Fondren, etc.
"I know some Delta farmers who are in their sixth and seventh generation where no one has ever held a job, never got their hands dirty, never done anything, they don't pay taxes and live off federal subsidies."
No, you do not. At least not "sixth and seventh generation."
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