All 10 Amendments must be counted or none of them can be counted on.
As most of us know there are 10 Amendments that make up our declaration of inviolable birthrights most commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. (I use the word “most” because recent graduates of our government schools have probably never heard of them.)
Ever wonder why, since there are ten of them, that they are not called the Bills of Rights? There is no “s” after the word bill because they are not separate declarations. The Bill of Rights is a list of human rights making up one declaration. Our Bill of Rights is a single declaration to the government that nothing on that list can be individually set apart from the others. In other words there is no single amendment that is either more important or less important than any of the others. Some of our more liberal friends, however, seem to be operating on a pick and choose basis.
For many years now the left has chosen to ignore the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Tenth Amendments (and others sporadically) when any of the amendments got in the way of their socialist agenda. A few examples (with amendments and added emphasis):
Amendment II
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.
In there zest for zoning the behavior of the individual, the liberals have removed the “un” from unreasonable. Nothing is off limits when it comes to government intrusion of privacy rights. Unwarranted searches and asset grabbing is now common practice by the government if any individual dares to spank their child, decorate their property in a manner of their choosing, fly a flag or smoke on their own private property.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
This should be the definitive word on privacy rights. No society is a free society if its citizens cannot own property without that ownership being valid only at the whim of government. One need only look at our government here in Fayetteville, Arkansas as proof that we are dispossessed of this most essential right. We are not only subjected to the oligarchic rule by non-elected planning pimps, but now our Mayor and City Council have declared ownership of private property a practice so vile that we must pay a penance to them in the form of an “impact” tax.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Is there anything complicated here? We gave permission to the government to exercise carefully rationed and enumerated powers of hegemony over the individual citizen. And just in case we left any out we told the federal government that those powers were the de jure property of the sovereign states and the individual. Now we have federal agencies like the EPA running amok. In that agency (and most others) we have a non-elected de facto government erasing municipal and state sovereignty and placing individuals and their property under the involuntary servitude of not only the federal government but of unelected jackboots committing piracy on behalf of international bodies like the United Nations.
There is, however, one Amendment that the liberals find important enough to honor. That is the first Amendment and specifically the right to free speech. To ignore that would prohibit them from denigrating the other nine Amendments. Example:
A while back a lot of hullabaloo was raised by the pro-United Nations, anti-George Bush liberals because their communist led rallies have been contained. As a matter of fact one of their complaints was that they were not allowed to march in front of the UN building. San Francisco demonstrators were upset that they were “fenced” by local authorities and herded like…well, like socialist subjects. Even local protestors were kept on the outskirts of the Fayetteville Square when they wanted to give rant to their fear of Dick Cheney.
As a result of this big brotherism, members of these groups have made statements in the media such as, “We had our Constitutional right to free speech taken away from us!” or, “The Constitution guarantees us the right to free assembly!” and, “the citizens have the Constitutional right to bring grievances against our government!”.
Well, as a matter of fact, I am in complete agreement with their complaints. Tactics like those that our governments, locally and nationally, used against these citizens were not just over-zealous. They were criminal and unconstitutional. Just like gun control, illegal confiscation of property, feudatory property taxes, unincorporated zoning and federal agencies exercising police power within the sovereign states is criminal and unconstitutional.