Rights & Responsibilities

Everyone talks about rights, rarely do you hear about the coresponding responsibilities. & even more rarely where many of these so-called rights come from that neither our Founding Fathers, Natural Law or Nature's God ever granted to us. Mike Adams, a columnist for Townhall.com & criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, makes a good point on the mentality of most of these people demanding these new found rights in his recent column for Townhall, My Right to Unlimited Rights. In a couple of spots I've added my own comments in blue.

"Not long ago, I was having a gathering of about eight people at my house. The last guy to show up walked right into my kitchen and then protested because he couldn’t find any bottled water in the refrigerator. Next, he complained that we ate all the snacks before he showed up thirty-five minutes late. When he finally came into the living room to sit down, he asked what we were talking about. I told him we were talking about economics, which involves not just demand but supply. I joked that he wouldn’t have to demand any bottled water and snacks if he’d remembered to supply some, too. That drew a laugh from one of our mutual friends. This guy is a prime example of lack of responsibility as I suspect from the context he had NO valid reason for being 35 minutes late.

This trait of being more in love with consumption than production is one shared by most of my socialist colleagues in academia. They base their lives on the idea of taking “from each according to his ability” and giving “to each according to his need.” The problem is that they do a better job of articulating their needs than promoting their abilities. 1 of the problems I see with this socialistic idea that takes the idea of Christian charity & turns it on its head is that it doesn't encourage ability, just take, take, take, & don't develop any ability. This is, of course, because socialists are generally short on abilities. They seek socialism because they think being guaranteed an average outcome is safer than trying to beat the average in a system based on merit, which is otherwise known as ability. What did Saint Paul say about not working, not eating?

Anyone watching the 2008 presidential race has doubtless seen a similar dynamic among supporters of Barack H. Obama. Most of his supporters have been talking about rights without any mention of the notion of responsibilities. Like supply and demand, and need and ability, the terms rights and responsibilities are best understood in relation to one another. For example, I have a 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms that the government cannot simply take away from me on a whim. But I also have a responsibility for everything that occurs between the time I discharge a bullet and the time the bullet comes to its final stopping point." What a novel idea, being an adult & being responsible for your own actions.

He goes on to list a bunch of so-called "rights" from the Obama campaign supporters. He concludes with: "After spending only a little time listening to followers of the Dali Bama I have concluded that, in Obama’s America, everyone gets to declare at least one new fundamental right regardless of whether it is written into the constitution. And so, naturally, I am going to declare first that I have a right to unlimited rights. (This is sort of like making one’s only wish a request for unlimited wishes). I guess you aren't asking this of King Brian Conners "Three wishes I'll grant ye, great wishes an' small! But you wish a fourth and you'll lose them all!" (re: Darby O'Gill & the Little People)

My second declaration of a new right is a little more complicated. First, I believe that I have a right to demand that you show me a copy of the U.S. Constitution every time you demand a new right. And if you cannot identify the constitutional basis of your proposed right, you forfeit that right as well as your right to vote in 2008. And, of course, I get to cast the vote you forfeited. OK, where is this right in the Constitution to take away someone elses vote? Does this mean I get his now?

So, those of you prone to simply announce fundamental rights without any constitutional basis should beware that this could soon deprive you of the right to vote. Until now, it’s only deprived of you the right to sound intelligent." I like the idea, but I suspect this is 1 time where those losing the right to vote would encourage an "Original Intent" reading of the Constitution rather than their normal, living breathing evolving reading.

The Declaration of Independence says we have the "Right to Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness". It seems to me that we have changed that last right to the right to be made happy at no expense to myself & at the expense of everyone else. Pursuing happiness doesn't mean you will be guarenteed to find it. It does mean that you have the responsibility to do your best to find it by developing your "God given" talents SO YOU CAN PURSUE IT.