I’m not taking my blog down because I’m not sure how to do it without permanently deleting it. Consider this my effort in today’s Blackout. Colored emphasis is mine.
Today, I’m posting a bunch of quotes relating to legislation and the rights and responsibilities of the people when faced with it. The point is to once again share the foundations that our country was built on, to remind people that the outcry today has solid grounding on solid thinking.
Before I start, though, I’d like to add a small reminder. I’m an American. I’m a New Englander. I’m a Yankee. I’m a woman. I’m a Patriot. I’m a fan of the American Revolution, the flag, and the National Anthem. I was born and raised in a place and by a family who hold all that history and tradition and independent thought as sacred as any religion. I have chosen to believe in the rightness of this country’s founding principles, as I can so discover them. I have also chosen to uphold those principles–not in the military, but “on the home front”, reminding people that this is who we are and where we come from, and selling our birthrights for a warm meal (or any other bribe) is doing ourselves a great disservice.
“The Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Excerpts from the United States Constitution:
Article 1, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To […] promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Aurthors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Amendment 1 (ratified effective December 15, 1791): Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment 4 (ratified effective December 15, 1791) The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment 9 (ratified effective December 15, 1791) The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
You can get a free copy of the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution from Hillsdale College, just by asking for it. Here’s their website: www.hillsdale.edu . My thanks to them for my copy, from which the above was transcribed.
Other Noteworthy quotes taken from:
Melton Jr., Buckner F., ed. The Quotable Founding Fathers. New York: Fall River Press, 2004.
Citation style is “Book for which the editor appears as author (MLA Style)”, page 594, in the 2001 edition of Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook, fourteenth edition. I mention this because THE RIGHT WAY TO CITE THINGS CHANGES OFTEN. Especially when citing internet stuff, and even if you get a good citation, it may be in the wrong style. The three big styles are MLA, APA, and Chicago… So there’s a whole ‘nother problem.
1. Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here! –Capt. John Parker, Order to the Lexington Minutemen, April 19, 1775
2. On the fortitude, On the wisdom and on the exertions of this important day, is supended the fate of this new world, and of unborn millions. It a boundless extent of continent, swarming with millions, will tamely submit to live, move, and have their being at the arbitrary will of a licentious minister, they basely yield to voluntary slavery, and future generations shall load their memories with incessant execrations. –On the other hand, if we arrest the hand which would ransack our pockets, if we disarm the parricide which points the dagger to our bosoms, if we nobly defeat that fatal edict which proclaims a power to frame laws for us in all cases whatsoever, thereby entailing the endless and numberless curses of slavery upon us, our heirs and their heirs forever; if we successgully resist that unapralleled usurpation of unconstitutional power, whereby our capital is robbed of the means of life; […] posterity will acknowledge that virtue which preserved them free and happy; and while we enjoy the rewards and blessings of the faithful, the torrent of panegyrists will roll our reputations to that latest period, when the streams of time shall be absorbed in the abyss of eternity. –Joseph Warren, The Suffolk Resolves, 1774
3. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of the enemy [sic]the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and pereverance. Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our libery, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom. It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions of yet unborn may be the miserabl sharers of the event. –Samuel Adams, Speech, 1771
4. Since the Men from a Party, on fear of a Frown,
Are kept by a Sugar-Plumb, quietly down.
Supinely asleep, & depriv’d of their Sight
Are strip’d of their Freedom, and rob’d of their Right.
If the Sons (so degenerate) the Blessing despise,
Let the Daughters of Liberty, nobly arise, […]
–Hannah Griffitts, “The Female Patriots”, 1768
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And that’s all I have to say about that.
I think the 5th amendment also applies because it could be argued that a website is property (and it talks about due process with the implication that a person is innocent until proven guilty).
Hi Francisco!
Hmm, you may be right on that one. I’d been reading it as strictly regarding the rights of criminals, but upon rereading it, it says “any person”. And considering that these days you have to pay for your domain name–yep, it’s property all right. Real Estate being houses and yards and such, would domains be eReal Estate?
The 5th says, “[…]nor sall any person […] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;”. It’s that “due process of law” that’s worrisome, because wrong laws are still referenced via due process. If you’ll forgive the reference, it’s like in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, where the young woman was judged to be a witch (despite all evidence to the contrary) because she weighed the same as a duck when weighed on grossly unbalanced scales. If a law says that one person or entity can take another’s eReal Estate income from them via mass bans, it’s essentially saying “stealing is ok if it’s tit-for-tat or can possibly be percieved so”… which is a grossly unbalanced scale, and still wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
The “due process” is there to protect people from corrupt law enforcement, but doesn’t help against corrupt law. Supposedly, the 2/3 majority vote requirements were to protect against that, because while the founders could easily forsee a quarter of the representatives being in it for themselves, they didn’t believe the whole governing body (or a vast majority thereof) would be. I believe it was John Adams’ speach to the congress during the revision process on the Declaration of Independence that pointed this out, but I may be wrong. Further research on this will be forthcoming.
I look forward to hearing the results of your research.
It shows just how much Government has effected peoples’ thinking when they think that the rights that people have are there to protect criminals. Our rights exist to protect all of us because it forcing the state to prove its case is one way that we are protected from dictatorship and tyranny.
The reason I thought of the 5th amendment is because includes the presumption of innocence and must be reasonable. The bit about Roe v. Wade suggests that the lawmakers may not be able to wriggle out of this one so easily.
Of course, I’m not an expert. I hope that your research gives us another avenue to attack this law.