THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT ALL POWERFUL

   Freedom is like the air that we all breathe which keeps us alive. The magic of America was that it was born with “freedom” as its rally call.  It was a sacred time, at the end of the American Revolution, when WE THE PEOPLE had the freedom and authority to decide how much of the People’s power to give up to a government that would rule them. Perhaps that was their biggest issue…..how to create a government, yet retain their individual freedoms? Or, put another way, how do The People retain their power, their God given Natural Rights, and have the government work for them?

       The Founders of America were well read; freedom of the masses was not a new idea. Throughout the centuries, scholars talked of Natural Rights, Inalienable Rights,  which are rights a human being has just because he or she was born. People are all born free but how quickly and thoroughly they become enslaved by another depends on what type of government or culture they were born into. But America would change that, as America represented freedom; and all children born in America would retain all of their Unalienable/Natural rights that they came into this world with.

        Americans of that early time period talked openly and often of Natural Rights, of Unalienable Rights, which is the same as Inalienable Rights. All Americans are familiar with the famous line written in the Declaration of Independence that goes:

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.

        But my heart saddens as I realize how few Americans understand what these Unalienable Rights are as stated in our Declaration of Independence, and found often in the literature at that time period. Through this past century, especially during the past few decades, Americans have waived their Unalienable Rights time and time again.  Now, it is true they may not have known they were waving their Natural Rights, but that doesn’t change the results of rights lost due to ignorance.

        Few Americans realize that each state has its own constitution, and that many of these state constitutions were written before the American Federal Constitution.  State governments existed before the Federal Government. And to enforce the importance the People had of this concept of Unalienable/ Natural Rights, all these constitutions speak of and acknowledge these Unalienable/Natural rights. Yet, if I were to ask a school child today to give me twenty examples or maybe even only one example of an Unalienable Right, would they be able to do so? Would their teachers? Would their parents? Would a Police Officer, or a Town official?  And yet, the very freedom that this country fought for, and was built on, was the principle and acknowledgment of Unalienable Rights that today’s Americans know little, if nothing of. So the question is clear, how can we keep and demand our Unalienable Rights, our power, our integrity, and freedom when the majority of Americans do not know what Unalienable Rights are or, that they exist and are acknowledged in every state constitution in America?

        Our Unalienable Rights was a huge reason why our Federal Constitution was almost NOT ratified. We almost did not become The United States of America because of that one major power issue that the People would not give up… their Unalienable Rights.

        So in order to ratify the Federal Constitution there were debates about Unalienable Rights and how to secure them. Some wanted them listed in the Federal Constitution. Some said it would be a mistake to list them in the Federal Constitution. The People feared that if they were listed and they accidentally forgot to list one, then the one, or ones, that were not listed might be lost to the People forever. They feared posterity might think that only the Unalienable Rights listed were meant to be retained by the People. So it was decided not to list them because it was common knowledge to the People of that time period what their Natural Rights were, plus, no where in the Constitution, as written, did the People ever give up those rights.  Still, the People feared a central government becoming too powerful, therefore forcefully, or perhaps even by deceit, or trickery, taking the People’s Unalienable Rights away. So there was a resolution. A promise was made that there would be a BILL of Rights comprised of the first Ten Amendments to the Federal Constitution. The People referred to these amendments as clarification of their rights while adding “FURTHER RESTRICTIONS” upon the power of the Federal Government. The First Amendment begins:   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.  So, how is your government doing in obeying those restrictions placed on them?

    Wisely, our founders who were negotiating a federal government for us, did not list all our Unalienable Rights in the Bill of Rights or any other document, wisely explaining that there were just too many to list. The Ninth Amendment protects all of our rights. It states: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall NOT be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.  This amendment, as written, worked very well back in early 1800s when all Americans had a solid knowledge of what their Unalienable Rights were. But how well does the Ninth Amendment  work today when the majority of Americans, especially those teaching our children, have little, if any, understanding of their Natural Rights on which this country was founded?  Ignorance of one’s rights makes for easy entrapment, theft and enslavement on all levels. The government overreaches its power into the lives of Americans today because of the People’s ignorance of what their rights are. The American Federal Government has grown into a huge, intrusive beast that most Americans fear. This government intrusiveness into the lives of the American People would have never happened if every American knew of, and insisted their Unalienable Rights be protected and secured by the government they created as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

        What can you do? Teach yourself what Unalienable are. Be able to identify Unalienable Rights so you can write your representatives, your governor and Present Trump whenever the government, on any level, is in violation of trespassing these rights. These are THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, that, according to the Declaration of Independence, the government was put in place to secure for them. But having human nature be as it is, and power loving its power, if the PEOPLE don’t speak up, if the PEOPLE don’t demand the government secure their Unalienable Rights, then through their ignorance, as feared by the founders, they will lose their inheritance of freedom; and then what legacy is left for them to pass on to the next generation