The amendment that protects your independence
By: Marlize van Romburgh
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: Columns
When it comes to freedom from government oppression, the First Amendment gets all the credit. When it comes to those liberties we all readily enjoy - speech, religion, assembly, petition and press - there is such a strong and unified understanding in America that these are inalienable rights that they're hardly ever questioned.
Yet when it comes to the Second Amendment and what should be an inalienable right to bear arms, the concept of personal independence is suddenly lost on half the population.
This Independence Day, let's re-examine that concept.
The Second Amendment states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Like the rest of the Bill of Rights, these words are clear and their intent is simple: to protect personal liberties. Independence Day doesn't just celebrate America's independence from Britain, it also celebrates the liberation of a people. America's citizens can proudly say they live in a country founded on the principle that each has the right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Speech" Patrick Henry said, "If we would be free, if we mean to hold inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have so long contended, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble cause for which we have so long endured, and to which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest should be obtained, then we must fight! I repeat Sir, we must fight! A call to arms and an appeal to the God of hosts is all that we have left."
Two centuries after our first Independence Day, America is again in the fight of its life.
On foreign soil, we fight terrorists that would rather see our nation succumb to a fanatical theocratic ideology, and again, the majority of us agree that we have a right to defend our nation from these attacks. But when it comes to each of us individually protecting our own lives, our own homes, our loved ones - our so-called "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - too many Americans are still confused on what should be a clear-cut answer.
Yet when it comes to the Second Amendment and what should be an inalienable right to bear arms, the concept of personal independence is suddenly lost on half the population.
This Independence Day, let's re-examine that concept.
The Second Amendment states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Like the rest of the Bill of Rights, these words are clear and their intent is simple: to protect personal liberties. Independence Day doesn't just celebrate America's independence from Britain, it also celebrates the liberation of a people. America's citizens can proudly say they live in a country founded on the principle that each has the right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Speech" Patrick Henry said, "If we would be free, if we mean to hold inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have so long contended, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble cause for which we have so long endured, and to which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest should be obtained, then we must fight! I repeat Sir, we must fight! A call to arms and an appeal to the God of hosts is all that we have left."
Two centuries after our first Independence Day, America is again in the fight of its life.
On foreign soil, we fight terrorists that would rather see our nation succumb to a fanatical theocratic ideology, and again, the majority of us agree that we have a right to defend our nation from these attacks. But when it comes to each of us individually protecting our own lives, our own homes, our loved ones - our so-called "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - too many Americans are still confused on what should be a clear-cut answer.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Steve
posted 7/20/08 @ 1:43 PM PST
Very well said! We NEED MANY MORE females that think this way to STAND UP.
Marlize, my hat is off to you. Well done.
Steve
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