Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Next In Line

It seems today that all of the major topics in the news are about the rights of the person or persons who are standing at the front of the line.

What I mean by that is that the citizens (and some non-citizens) of this great nation are all clamoring to be heard by the government... and demanding that the government grant them this right or that one. The sad thing about this, is that we have forgotten that the framers of the Constitution believed that our rights came from the Creator, not from government. They wrote the Constitution to give us the freedom from having to look to the government for our rights, and rather constructed the document to protect us from an overbearing, over-powerful body of legislature. They wrote to protect us from being infringed upon, not to grant us anything we didn't already have.

Over the decades, we have slowly replaced culpability and accountability with legislation, and thus seen our personal freedoms taken away and tucked under the wings of government... little by little... death by a thousand cuts. Think about it... it won't take you too long to come up with a list of laws that instruct us (and penalize us) in regard to our personal behavior... that behavior which causes no harm to others or to anyone outside of our direct care and responsibility. If you live out in the country, with nobody within 10 miles of your driveway, it's still illegal for you to drive down the road without wearing your seatbelt in order to protect yourself. Some states want to ban certain types of food or beverages because the government has deemed us too foolish to know better for ourselves.

We have lost all understanding of the origin of our rights, and how we are supposed to claim and exercise those rights. We are hell-bent on being the next in line in order to have our voices heard by the powers that be... so that we may be granted (or denied) basic freedoms given to us at birth. When granted, we dance and holler and shout "we're number one" or "I told you so" only to be shoved aside by the person or group in the number 2 position. Next, please. We have forgotten how to be human. How to live. How to love each other for all of our differences. We demand to be noticed and coddled and bronzed for posterity.

Whatever the topic of the day, our courts will decide for us... tell us that we're right or wrong... and then move to the next person in line. The most current victor will gloat and jump for joy, for a while. The disappointed will withdraw and hope the victors will go away now that they've had their day in the sun. Alas, there's always someone else standing in line, ready to seek their rights to be granted, and the only thing that will change will be the topic of the day. The process will always stay the same... unless we reacquire the ability to live in the time and place we are granted and do it to the best of our ability.

No comments:

Post a Comment