Is That Right?

Our faith is our strength
--motto of Tristan da Cunha 

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the
Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination
--John Keats 

Freedom is a bourgeois prejudice
V.I. Lenin 
__________________  

"Truth", "Freedom", "Rights", "liberties", endowments ... these terms occur in our foundational documents, but have never been definitively explained. That is why a person like Edward Snowden is either deified or demonized -- we are not sure what we are allowed to do.

The most famous line from the Declaration of Independence (1776) states:

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.

But in a society based upon laws, definition is important. How can these be "self evident" when at the time of the Declaration's writing, all men (= people) were not treated as though they had been "created equal[ly]"? If they are "truths", then they would have trumped behavior to the contrary.

It would take the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteen Amendments to confer freedom, full citizenship and the right to vote upon black males. It would not be until the 19th Amendment (ratified in 1920) that women would gain the right of suffrage.

Perhaps one may believe in universal equality of the construction of man, yet still believe that some few ubermensch retain the right to overmaster them. However, that is not societal equality, of the sort that a government document may confer. Further, how can it be "true" and "self-evident" that all are created equally when the observed evidence is so contrary. 

If rights are inalienable, they why need they be conferred by a "Creator"? If one were a citizen atheist, one still maintains his rights even though he denies they have been conferred upon him by a Creator. If rights are inalienable to my existence, then they need not be conferred, and are just a fact. 

If rights are "inalienable", then they are indwelling in the human, and may not be divorced by fiat or behavior. The Existentialists argued for man's radical freedom, even in cases of incarceration or death sentence, but that is a philosophical argument arguing for freedom in one's head space, a domain on which the government has not yet intruded. 

Justice Brandeis sought to protect that intangible freedom in his dissent in Olmstead (1934), when he foresaw a time when governments might develop and enlist technology to invade even that private sphere -- a "thought police", of sorts. However, one's actual physical condition may indeed be constricted, either by one's violation of his contract with the State or bad faith behavior of the State itself. So one's essential "liberty" is not a truth.

Liberty is not so much a right as a very tenuous condition. While an enlightened individual may eke out a mental zone of free thought when physical freedom may be denied to him, liberty is only the result of an agreement between the free man and his government, and only exists in the zone when both are performing their responsibilities correctly. Slavery and servitude is more generally man's state. 

"Life" is the one given among the "truths", but even it is not a "Right" -- life is simply a biological imperative. It is the seed seeking rich soil, the egg seeking fertilization, and then implantation. The impetus to life is a dumb fact if one is existing on this planet, much as when life has been extinguished, death and the absence of life will be a fact.

The Articles of Confederation also alludes to the “Great Governor of the World.” Were these references to a Big Guy just sops to simple people fleeing religious persecution? Many of the Founders were Deists, but they also believed in an "unmoved mover", a disinterested creator of all that is.

In Jefferson’s view, the rising generation, once sustained by complete liberty of conscience, would abandon religions based on biblical revelation in favor of those founded on reason. “There is not a young man now living in the United States,” he predicted in 1822, “who will not die a Unitarian.” (Separation of Church and State.) But reason had its day with The Enlightenment.

In fact, there are NO inalienable rights; ask Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. There are "rights" conferred by government, rights which may be abridged, abrogated or annulled, either judicially or extralegally.

We must be honest about who we are and what we want if we are to understand our present condition, yet who can do this even on a personal level? Our founders were brilliant and brave, their rhetoric soaring, but the words belie terrific contradictions and outright misstatements.

We are a riven society because men are riven, and men have created these concepts called rights.

[cross-posted @ milpub]

Double Talk

The right of the people to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed
--James Madison (1789)
___________________

In previous entries, Ranger has compared the fees required to carry a concealed weapon to those of the illegal poll tax which required people to front funds, knowledge or property in order to vote.

Attorney General Holder recently said the Texas's voter ID law, requiring a photo ID from all prospective voters, was the 21st-century equivalent of the illegal poll tax.

The poll taxes of the Jim Crow era were designed to dissuade poor black people from voting in elections, and the Texas law requiring a photo ID from all prospective voters is no different. An estimated 1.4 million Texans, predominantly the lower-income and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic, don’t have a driver’s license or other photo identification. To apply for a voter ID card, Texas requires people to travel to a state office and supply fingerprints and proof of identity, such as a birth certificate—copies of which cost $22. Discouraging people from voting this way is illegal, which is why Holder’s Justice Department rightly blocked this “disgraceful” law back in March. Soon, a federal court will rule whether Texas’s law—and similar laws in a dozen states—violates the Constitution (Voter ID: The Modern Poll Tax).

If a poll tax and photo voter ID requirement infringe upon our franchise -- a guaranteed right of citizenship -- then surely requiring a fee for a CCW permit is the same thing. Forty-nine (49) states allow citizens to carry a concealed weapon, either with or without a permit.

In Florida, the CCW permit costs $135 + fingerprinting fee, plus $100-150 for the required classes prior to application. The total cost to carry a concealed weapon in Florida is about $250. This is unconstitutional as a right can neither be denied nor abridged.

However, neither party will address the issue since both are complicit in its origin and furtherance. The CCW is a hidden tax and therefore a source of revenue. Additionally, neither party wants the lower socioeconomic classes carrying a gun in a de facto recognition of the direness of a life which might drive one into dangerous gun scenarios.

The Democrats wants these people to vote, but not tote; the Republicans would like them to do neither. That is it in a nutshell, but why might that be?

On a personal level, as a retired military officer having commanded three Army Marksmanship Units and Infantry weapons proficient to include sniper qualified, Ranger feels insulted that he is required to buy a permit for the purpose of exercising his right to carry a weapon.

The United States is a nation of conflicting beliefs, laws and emotions. One cannot move with cohesion until the rules are unified and clearly stated.