The Bill of Rights and Current Events – December 2010

By Zach Foster

USA.gov recently published a brief list reminding Americans of what freedoms they are guaranteed under the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.  These freedoms are the cornerstone of American democracy and what it means to be an American citizen.  Nonetheless, these freedoms have been attacked or compromised through the ages and they continue to be attacked today.  Let us analyze some of the freedoms guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights and how they stand in the face of today’s events.

Freedom of Religion: For the most part, American freedom of religion has persevered to unimaginable heights as nearly every denomination of every religion on earth is practiced in this country, from ancient traditional religions like Christianity and Buddhism to modern religions like Wicca and Scientology.  Religious diversity has brought the unexpected but direly needed side effect of teaching Americans to tolerate each other’s differences.  However, the religious group targeted in this country by much of the media for the last nine years, Muslims, has seen attacks on their freedom of religion.  No one is blind to the fact that since September 11^th, 2001 there has been a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment.  Many wonderful and good natured Americans have allowed the better angels of their nature to be corrupted by the propaganda of a few paranoid religious xenophobes.  It is highly unpopular to be a Muslim in America.

What is even more highly unpopular is to be a Muslim in New York City.  Many big names in media launched one verbal assault after another at the idea of building a new mosque several blocks away from Ground Zero.  While it is easy to connect the dots that make this idea seem tacky, the people who have assaulted this idea have bought entirely too deeply into an alleged conspiracy that this is nothing but a slap in the face to America by Muslim extremists.  These people forget, however, that over three hundred of the victims—ten percent of the victims of the attack—were American Muslims.  They also forget about the thousands of good-natured Muslims who died fighting the Taliban between 1996 and 2001, and the patriotic pro-freedom Muslims of the Afghan National Army and the Iraqi Army who have fought and died next to American troops in the fight against extremism.

More importantly, they forget about the American Muslims who have fought and died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, whose memory is being slapped in the face every time an American utters anti-Islam rhetoric.  Americans forget that we are engaged in a Global War on Terror, NOT a global War on Islam (and let it be noted that former President George W. Bush’s family is very close friends with the  Saudi Royal family).  For all those who still believe that building that mosque in New York is a tacky and intentionally insulting move: is it too difficult to accept that the congregation wants to build their mosque there BECAUSE THEY ALREADY OWN THAT LAND?  Respect religions, condemn violence!

Freedom of assembly:  This freedom is still intact, though it is occasionally abused as Americans forget that this freedom explicitly applies to peaceful assembly.  There are places and times when far-rightist radical groups assemble in order to voice beliefs on racial supremacy and sometimes on how genocide of the lesser races would be a blessing.  Hate dominates their lives and probably always will.  On the other side of the political spectrum, radical leftists gather not just to protest actions of the American government, but advocate for its violent overthrow either for anarchy or for the purpose of proletarian revolution.  They forget that anarchy equals chaos, since social contracts are necessary for society to even function at the bare minimum.  They also forget or consciously disregard historical trends that when governments are violently overthrown by “proletarian revolutions,” the resulting “people’s governments” become more tyrannical and bloody than the ones they replace.  They fail to appreciate the government that, despite its shortcomings, allows them the luxuries of freedom they enjoy daily.

Freedom to keep and bear arms:  This Constitutional right is attacked on a regular basis.  Some states have passed laws overwhelmingly in favor of gun rights, while other state governments do everything in their power to try to remove guns from existence.  While some uneducated idealists truly believe that fewer guns in society will lower gun violence, the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of gun violence is committed not with guns legally purchased from gun stores, but with illegal weapons, usually smuggled into the country and purchased on the black market.  Disarming the law abiding citizenry only makes them vulnerable to be preyed on by criminals.  The Second Amendment was most recently slammed by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who claimed that James Madison only hastily threw it into the Bill of Rights to get the Constitution ratified by paranoid Congressmen.  However, James Madison’s explicitly pro-gun essay, #46 in The Federalist Papers, proves Breyer to be quite mistaken.

Freedom of speech:  This fundamental right continues to stand strong.  It is often used to voice hate and hateful vulgarity, but these are necessary evils in order to preserve Freedom of Speech for the moment when it is used to cry out a truth and right any grievous wrongs in our country or our world.

Freedom of the press:  This freedom stands strong and often is heavily abused by members of the press.  The press and media have the right to run any story they choose, but they DO NOT have the right to violate government secrecy when it comes to classified documents.  There comes a point where there must be—not a trade-off—but a compromise between freedom of information and national security.  Wikileaks and its American supporters have greatly strained this right in testing the limits of Freedom of the Press.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said it best: “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”  If Americans completely give up their Freedom of Speech of Freedom of the Press in the name of national security truly deserve neither.  At the same time, those who would betray vital military or national secrets that would truly harm the security of the nation do not deserve to be free.  There needs to be a boundary for Americans—let each decide their own—where they decide when they are still free to say what they will while national security is respected.  Think of it this way: Will spilling these secrets get people killed?  Will keeping these secrets get people killed?

Freedom for those accused of crimes:  This freedom stands strong to this very day.  It was Cambodian (“Democratic” Kampuchean) dictator Pol Pot who said “It is better that ten innocents should die than for one guilty person to go free.”  In America it is just the opposite, and while crooks are occasionally able to slide past the justice system, many innocent people have been spared from being wrongly sent to prison.  We as a society are above Napoleonic law.  As a matter of fact, it is convicted felons that benefit most from this.  Most Americans misinterpret “protection for the accused” to carry over for those in prison when it need not be so.

There are many convicts in prison who actively fail to be reformed because of participation in rackets and crime from within prison walls.  Many activists rally in favor of improving (softening) living conditions in the prisons, and even for abolishing the death penalty, but they forget two things: 1) Imprisonment and execution are in compliance with Constitutional law, since people can only not be deprived of life, liberty, or property WITHOUT due process of law.  The Justice system is due process of law and CAN deprive a convicted felon of life (the death penalty), liberty (prison time), or property (fines or civil penalties); 2) Prison is meant to be a period of punishment and reform, NOT a child’s time out in his bedroom.

Instead of reading novels, pumping iron, and laying in their cells all day, perhaps prisoners should be doing twelve to fourteen hours of hard labor, followed by one or two hours in education on American history, American government, and the importance of contributing to the community and society as a whole upon release from prison (or, for the lifers without parole, helping others who will be our reform themselves).  While it is important that we protect those accused of crimes, we also have an obligation to teach and reform those in prison so that when they get out, we can also protect potential victims of crime.

Freedom of religion is the face of diversity.  Freedom of assembly is the face of political ideas.  Freedom to keep and bear arms is the face of self defense.  Freedom of speech is the face of expression, and sometimes, truth.  Freedom of the press is the face of knowing what goes on around us so that we may be one society, not an archipelago of people and information, and it is the face of awareness.  Protection for those accused of crimes, as well as legal disciplinary action for those convicted, are key aspects of a social contract and are the face of order.  All of these faces are the grand union that makes up this country.  The Constitution is the Law of the Land, and let us fulfill our dual responsibility of being aware of our rights and defending them at all costs.