Let Freedom Ring!

Sometimes I sit at this keyboard and screen and I have two themes screaming for my attention. On happier days I can somehow ignore one and concentrate on the other. On ecstatic days I find a way to combine both but on bad days, I wind up forgetting both.

So let’s see what kind of a day it’s going to be?

As far as I know Magna Carta in 1215 CE was the first attempt to rein in the absolute powers of a monarchy and thereby grant to the “non-monarchs” some semblance of self-determination. It was a model with obvious merit. The monarch kept his or her head and the fortune that went along with it but gave up the power of life or death. Many countries followed the example, some sooner like the French in 1791, some much later like Spain and some never at all like Somalia.

Every one of these and the intervening attempts had a common and overriding premise. This was/is, “We the Government/ King/Queen/Junta grant you these rights ……. Or, words to that effect.

Yes, I know. I missed out 1776 and our precious and timeless document. What a jewel it is? And a unique jewel too because this one does not grant rights to anyone except to the people. Here, the Constitution pronounced, “You the Government is granted the right to do these things ……….. And no more! That is what is meant by “American Exceptionalism”.

Obama and his liberal lawyer friends see this splendid affirmation of human endeavor as a hindrance. It stops them doing what they want to do. They talk about “Negative Rights”. The Constitution to them is a constraint.

To me, and countless Americans before me, it is the very essence of liberty itself.

May Freedom forever ring!

Oops, today I didn't get to either issue but there's always tomorrow .......