Greater Boston Tea Party Tax Day Rally 13April2014
Alexander Hamilton wrote, in 1775, "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."
Constitutional conservatives, in upholding the document that IS the "Supreme Law of the Land" are slandered and defamed by the media and by politicians as "evil haters" who want to return to the days of slavery and inequality. The names these LIARS attribute to us rightfully belong to themselves. What we wish to CONSERVE and to REINSTATE is the most radical, most beautiful, most empowering, most justice-bringing, most equality-spreading, most freedom-loving principle that has ever been used as the foundation of civil governance.
So let us understand, with truth and spirit, viscerally, what that principle IS: because it is imperative for the power-hungry rulers on the Left AND the Right that we NONE of us realize the POWER inherent in that principle.
From the Declaration of Independence (first draft by Jefferson, you will hear the difference):
"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, and among these are Life, Liberty, and Property. 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 and the Duty of the People to alter or to abolish it." Or to reinstate it.
This principle they based on The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. Cicero stated that Natural Law was true law, in accordance with the rules of the universe -- and that law built on any foundation BUT natural law would ultimately fail.
What is this really saying to us?
That our Rights are natural, absolute, inherent, and inseparable -- they come from God; and are ours by virtue of our humanity.
That our Rights PRE-DATE, TRANSCEND, and SUPERSEDE the Constitution! No rights are "granted" by the Constitution -- we, the people, "established and ordained" the Constitution and the federal government, WE gave that government limited areas of legal action. That government has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY in what is - or is not - a Natural Human Right.
And that the sole legitimate purpose of civil government is to protect our Rights! It cannot "create" them - it can only "secure" them - or try to limit them.
RIGHTS:
LIFE: that we have, may keep, and may live and protect our lives FREE from interference by civil government in our day-to-day affairs, provided only that we do not infringe on the equal rights of others.
LIBERTY: Jefferson said it is "unobstructed action according to our will," that we may do as we please with ourselves, our efforts, and the product of those efforts.
PROPERTY: to keep what we have put our efforts into, for our own purposes, and to give that property to others as we see fit, during our lives and upon our deaths.
And, explicit in the Declaration of Independence, the Right NOT to consent when the government we created has outgrown the boundaries we set and assumes for itself powers and sovereignty that rightfully belong to We, the People.
How can we determine if something is a Natural, or God-given, Right? Each one may be held and enjoyed at NO expense or loss to ANY OTHER PERSON, and they are NOT subject to "interpretation" by others.
Our rights are limited only by the equal rights of others. And since we do NOT have the right to commit unjust acts that infringe on the rights of others, we may not ask - or demand - or ALLOW - government to commit unjust acts on our behalf, nor excuse violations on the part of the government. NO PERSON is fundamentally entitled to rule another. Yet the leaders on Beacon Hill and in Washington believe we are too ignorant, too careless, or too corrupt to make good decisions for ourselves. Were that true, it is all the MORE reason not to trust THEM with power over others - for they also are humans, and no better nor wiser than any one of us.
The principle of consent also RESTRICTS government -- at the end of the Declaration, it says the united States may do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may, of right, do -- so it may freely act, but ONLY in those areas where it has legitimately been given the power to act by the Constitution.
Some will now say, "That proves it! Conservatives hate the poor and the sick!" WRONG. The other side of "Rights" is "Responsibilities" -- and it is the responsibility of each one of us to make sure that the poor and the sick have two things: #1 - any immediate aid they truly need, and #2 - an avenue for THEM to MAKE THEIR OWN LIVES BETTER. This can ONLY be properly done at the local level -- even a state is too careless, and too callous, to fulfill that responsibility properly. Just ask the Pelletier family.
"But you have to MAKE rich people help or they won't!" Wrong again. Look at the private foundations, educational funds, and medical institutions set up by the very wealthy. As for those who give nothing -- there is either a MORAL education problem, or there is an ASSUMPTION that "the government will take care of it." The first must be addressed at the individual MORAL and ethical level. The second is solved the INSTANT we get government fingers out of the charitable pie.
All men are created equal.
Equal in Rights: to develop their own, God-given, talents and to shape their lives as THEY wish -- not as government, social class, or church dictate. To FAIL when need be, as that is where stronger growth is born.
Equal under the Law: whether CEO, President, or a 15-year-old with a rare disease, that we are certain of being held under terms of LAW rather than by whim; treated according to how powerful one's friends are seen to be.
The freedom to BECOME is the essence of America. That freedom to grow, to improve, to take risks, to fail, and to try again, has made us a beacon for anyone seeking a better life. It brought us to the moon and back. It fuels our innovations in EVERY field - science, medicine, art, engineering, commerce.
That is the freedom that our misled friends on the left actually WANT for the groups they see as downtrodden victims. If they would open their eyes, they would see that we want those freedoms for EVERYONE, not just the privileged elite in DC, Beacon Hill, and boardrooms -- and they would join us, en masse.
It is the power-hungry leadership; on the left AND the right, that do NOT want that freedom for ANY of us. Yet those power-hungry leaders in Washington and the state capitals use and twist the words of "advancement," "justice," and "freedom," to pursue their real agenda -- the subjugation of ALL but themselves and their friends. They will say that the Declaration and the Constitution are the outdated, the words of dead white slave-owners; that rights come from government; that natural law is "just an obsolete interpretation." They are utterly WRONG -- and intellectually dishonest, as their posturings are full of internal contradictions.
The Declaration puts forth the principles upon which this country is founded, and it was incorporated by the FIRST act of Congress as part of the "Organic Laws" of the United States. Its vision informs the entirety of our Constitution and it IS the standard against which ALL government acts must be judged: does this proposal secure our Rights? Or does it seek to infringe those Rights?
Massachusetts Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner said, "The Declaration is the illuminated initial letter of our history... the national heart, the national soul, the national will, the national voice, which must inspire our interpretation of the Constitution."
Constitutional conservatives, in upholding the document that IS the "Supreme Law of the Land" are slandered and defamed by the media and by politicians as "evil haters" who want to return to the days of slavery and inequality. The names these LIARS attribute to us rightfully belong to themselves. What we wish to CONSERVE and to REINSTATE is the most radical, most beautiful, most empowering, most justice-bringing, most equality-spreading, most freedom-loving principle that has ever been used as the foundation of civil governance.
So let us understand, with truth and spirit, viscerally, what that principle IS: because it is imperative for the power-hungry rulers on the Left AND the Right that we NONE of us realize the POWER inherent in that principle.
From the Declaration of Independence (first draft by Jefferson, you will hear the difference):
"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, and among these are Life, Liberty, and Property. 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 and the Duty of the People to alter or to abolish it." Or to reinstate it.
This principle they based on The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. Cicero stated that Natural Law was true law, in accordance with the rules of the universe -- and that law built on any foundation BUT natural law would ultimately fail.
What is this really saying to us?
That our Rights are natural, absolute, inherent, and inseparable -- they come from God; and are ours by virtue of our humanity.
That our Rights PRE-DATE, TRANSCEND, and SUPERSEDE the Constitution! No rights are "granted" by the Constitution -- we, the people, "established and ordained" the Constitution and the federal government, WE gave that government limited areas of legal action. That government has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY in what is - or is not - a Natural Human Right.
And that the sole legitimate purpose of civil government is to protect our Rights! It cannot "create" them - it can only "secure" them - or try to limit them.
RIGHTS:
LIFE: that we have, may keep, and may live and protect our lives FREE from interference by civil government in our day-to-day affairs, provided only that we do not infringe on the equal rights of others.
LIBERTY: Jefferson said it is "unobstructed action according to our will," that we may do as we please with ourselves, our efforts, and the product of those efforts.
PROPERTY: to keep what we have put our efforts into, for our own purposes, and to give that property to others as we see fit, during our lives and upon our deaths.
And, explicit in the Declaration of Independence, the Right NOT to consent when the government we created has outgrown the boundaries we set and assumes for itself powers and sovereignty that rightfully belong to We, the People.
How can we determine if something is a Natural, or God-given, Right? Each one may be held and enjoyed at NO expense or loss to ANY OTHER PERSON, and they are NOT subject to "interpretation" by others.
Our rights are limited only by the equal rights of others. And since we do NOT have the right to commit unjust acts that infringe on the rights of others, we may not ask - or demand - or ALLOW - government to commit unjust acts on our behalf, nor excuse violations on the part of the government. NO PERSON is fundamentally entitled to rule another. Yet the leaders on Beacon Hill and in Washington believe we are too ignorant, too careless, or too corrupt to make good decisions for ourselves. Were that true, it is all the MORE reason not to trust THEM with power over others - for they also are humans, and no better nor wiser than any one of us.
The principle of consent also RESTRICTS government -- at the end of the Declaration, it says the united States may do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may, of right, do -- so it may freely act, but ONLY in those areas where it has legitimately been given the power to act by the Constitution.
Some will now say, "That proves it! Conservatives hate the poor and the sick!" WRONG. The other side of "Rights" is "Responsibilities" -- and it is the responsibility of each one of us to make sure that the poor and the sick have two things: #1 - any immediate aid they truly need, and #2 - an avenue for THEM to MAKE THEIR OWN LIVES BETTER. This can ONLY be properly done at the local level -- even a state is too careless, and too callous, to fulfill that responsibility properly. Just ask the Pelletier family.
"But you have to MAKE rich people help or they won't!" Wrong again. Look at the private foundations, educational funds, and medical institutions set up by the very wealthy. As for those who give nothing -- there is either a MORAL education problem, or there is an ASSUMPTION that "the government will take care of it." The first must be addressed at the individual MORAL and ethical level. The second is solved the INSTANT we get government fingers out of the charitable pie.
All men are created equal.
Equal in Rights: to develop their own, God-given, talents and to shape their lives as THEY wish -- not as government, social class, or church dictate. To FAIL when need be, as that is where stronger growth is born.
Equal under the Law: whether CEO, President, or a 15-year-old with a rare disease, that we are certain of being held under terms of LAW rather than by whim; treated according to how powerful one's friends are seen to be.
The freedom to BECOME is the essence of America. That freedom to grow, to improve, to take risks, to fail, and to try again, has made us a beacon for anyone seeking a better life. It brought us to the moon and back. It fuels our innovations in EVERY field - science, medicine, art, engineering, commerce.
That is the freedom that our misled friends on the left actually WANT for the groups they see as downtrodden victims. If they would open their eyes, they would see that we want those freedoms for EVERYONE, not just the privileged elite in DC, Beacon Hill, and boardrooms -- and they would join us, en masse.
It is the power-hungry leadership; on the left AND the right, that do NOT want that freedom for ANY of us. Yet those power-hungry leaders in Washington and the state capitals use and twist the words of "advancement," "justice," and "freedom," to pursue their real agenda -- the subjugation of ALL but themselves and their friends. They will say that the Declaration and the Constitution are the outdated, the words of dead white slave-owners; that rights come from government; that natural law is "just an obsolete interpretation." They are utterly WRONG -- and intellectually dishonest, as their posturings are full of internal contradictions.
The Declaration puts forth the principles upon which this country is founded, and it was incorporated by the FIRST act of Congress as part of the "Organic Laws" of the United States. Its vision informs the entirety of our Constitution and it IS the standard against which ALL government acts must be judged: does this proposal secure our Rights? Or does it seek to infringe those Rights?
Massachusetts Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner said, "The Declaration is the illuminated initial letter of our history... the national heart, the national soul, the national will, the national voice, which must inspire our interpretation of the Constitution."