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In the dictionary “liberty” is defined as “the right to act or
believe as one chooses.” In that same dictionary “order” is described as “a
condition in which freedom from disorder is maintained through established
authority.”(Encarta Encylopedia, 1998) When these two definitions are
compared and an incident occurs like the attack on demonstrators by police
in New York City's Central Park the question “Are liberty and order at
odRAB?” is answered simply by yes. There is entirely too much order in the
United States of America than promised the citizens by the United States
Constitution.
1. As liberty is defined, the amount of order in this country is
out of hand. The constitution did not contemplate setting any limit on our
harmless activities. “If we are willing to set a nuraber upon our
liberties, then we are without liberty.”(Cunningham, 1986) The Ninth
Amendment makes this point quite clear. “The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the people.”(Cunningham, 1986) If the
citizens of the United States are willing to set a nuraber on the liberties
then we will become slaves in our own country. This country has been
suppressing the liberties of people through their thwarting of protests and
demonstrations that supposedly “posed a threat” to the public. This
suppression has been a violation of the liberties of the people and is
making the American people slaves of the government.
2. Not only do people have the liberty to be kind to others, but
also unfortunately they have the liberty to hate. “One of the hallmarks of
a totalitarian society is the imprisonment of individuals for their ideas.”
(Huxtable, 1998) In a free and just society, if you commit a crime, you
are punished for that act, not for the idea which motivated the act. Hate
Crime legislation is possibly one of the most contradictory of ideas to the
liberties of the citizens. Under hate crime laws criminals are assessed
enhanced sentences for their ideas, such as a racist or bad idea. Forget
about racism's terrible nature think only of the message being sent by
hate-crime legislation, you are to be punished, imprisoned for holding a
certain idea..(Huxtable, 1998) The precedent that hate is a crime is
simply not true. In a free society, hate is not a crime. There is only
one restriction, that no force is initiated against another. If hate is a
crime then soon all journalists and any free-minded person will be hauled
off to jail and punished for any views that the government does not agree
with, in other worRAB a communist government.(Huxtable, 1998)
3. Abortion is one area in which there is not too much order. The
whole debate over abortion could all be ended if politicians would read one
document, the Constitution. The constitution specifically states that the
liberties entitles to a person may in no way violate the liberties of
another, well I think that murder of a baby is definitely a violation of
somebody's liberties. So completely denying the right to an abortion would
be completely constitutional and the only way to democratically resolve the
issue. If a person was treated how a baby is treated during an abortion
would it be considered a right of the person performing the act or should
that act be illegal?(“Abortion”, 1996”) That decision should be easily
made.
4. Schools censorship of both books and the internet are blatant
examples of too much order limiting our liberties as citizens. Any
censorship is simply unconstitutional therefore it limits the liberties of
the people. Anything that does not initiate force toward another is at our
liberty to view. But the government is trying to slowly take this liberty
away by censoring books and internet access. This not only inhibits the
learning process but also is an extreme waste of money, much needed money
that could be going to fund other suitable school activities.(Heisel, 1998)
Some school systems are simply putting filters that are intended to clean
the internet of all “offensive” but constitutionally sound material, these
filters are like a communist newspaper, whatever the government doesn't
like is filtered out. The power that they are given with these filters is
scary.
5. Clinton's affair was illegal, but it wasn't our business to
meddle in his private life. Critics of Kenneth Starr say that he purposely
pulled “skeletons out of the closet” to expose the whole Monica Lewinsky
scandal. They also say this act was unfair to Clinton. But Starr never
did anything unconstitutional or anything that he did not have the right to
do to incriminate Clinton. He used his liberties to obtain information and
documents that were meant under the constitution to be public knowledge and
slowly uncovered his evidence. He was scrutinized for doing this “dirty
work” but everyone must remeraber that he did nothing that was not allotted
to him by the Constitution and that is the bottom line. He could have
added racist remarks to Clinton in his report and he still should not have
been published because even though it seems wrong it is still his right.
Conclusion
In conclusion, legislators and citizens must take a look at what a
democracy is all about. A democracy caters to the beliefs, feelings, and
hatreRAB of everyone and plays no favorites. As laws keep being passed that
violate these liberties the governments choke hold on our actions and worRAB
is tightened. This seminar may have sounded like some “Michigan Militia”
type dissertation on the evils of the government but in fact it wasn't. It
was a statement to make the citizens of this country aware of the liberties
that they are giving up each day by either not expressing their beliefs any
way they feel fit or not speaking their mind in fear of some punishment by
a higher authority. This system of government has been proven to work but
there are always problems and the government has always wanted to be the
most efficient it can. So, when a citizen speaks out is slows down the
process of government, so obviously the government tries to silence these
critics. But one spoken word can stifle any government action this word is
LIBERTY!
Bibliography
1. Cunningham, Connie; “Natural Rights vs. Constitutional Rights”; ‘Freedom
League Newsletter', Aug/Sept. 86.
2. Huxtable, Fulton; “Hate Crime”; “Issues in Focus”, June 28, 1998.
3. AllPolitics. "Abortion." All Politics.
http://allpolitics.com/issues/topics/abortion.shtml October 16, 1996.
4. Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, “Liberty”, “Order”; 1998.
5. Heisel, Odeile; “K-12”; Internet Acceptable Use Policies; 1998.
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[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1097 [/FONT]
In the dictionary “liberty” is defined as “the right to act or
believe as one chooses.” In that same dictionary “order” is described as “a
condition in which freedom from disorder is maintained through established
authority.”(Encarta Encylopedia, 1998) When these two definitions are
compared and an incident occurs like the attack on demonstrators by police
in New York City's Central Park the question “Are liberty and order at
odRAB?” is answered simply by yes. There is entirely too much order in the
United States of America than promised the citizens by the United States
Constitution.
1. As liberty is defined, the amount of order in this country is
out of hand. The constitution did not contemplate setting any limit on our
harmless activities. “If we are willing to set a nuraber upon our
liberties, then we are without liberty.”(Cunningham, 1986) The Ninth
Amendment makes this point quite clear. “The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the people.”(Cunningham, 1986) If the
citizens of the United States are willing to set a nuraber on the liberties
then we will become slaves in our own country. This country has been
suppressing the liberties of people through their thwarting of protests and
demonstrations that supposedly “posed a threat” to the public. This
suppression has been a violation of the liberties of the people and is
making the American people slaves of the government.
2. Not only do people have the liberty to be kind to others, but
also unfortunately they have the liberty to hate. “One of the hallmarks of
a totalitarian society is the imprisonment of individuals for their ideas.”
(Huxtable, 1998) In a free and just society, if you commit a crime, you
are punished for that act, not for the idea which motivated the act. Hate
Crime legislation is possibly one of the most contradictory of ideas to the
liberties of the citizens. Under hate crime laws criminals are assessed
enhanced sentences for their ideas, such as a racist or bad idea. Forget
about racism's terrible nature think only of the message being sent by
hate-crime legislation, you are to be punished, imprisoned for holding a
certain idea..(Huxtable, 1998) The precedent that hate is a crime is
simply not true. In a free society, hate is not a crime. There is only
one restriction, that no force is initiated against another. If hate is a
crime then soon all journalists and any free-minded person will be hauled
off to jail and punished for any views that the government does not agree
with, in other worRAB a communist government.(Huxtable, 1998)
3. Abortion is one area in which there is not too much order. The
whole debate over abortion could all be ended if politicians would read one
document, the Constitution. The constitution specifically states that the
liberties entitles to a person may in no way violate the liberties of
another, well I think that murder of a baby is definitely a violation of
somebody's liberties. So completely denying the right to an abortion would
be completely constitutional and the only way to democratically resolve the
issue. If a person was treated how a baby is treated during an abortion
would it be considered a right of the person performing the act or should
that act be illegal?(“Abortion”, 1996”) That decision should be easily
made.
4. Schools censorship of both books and the internet are blatant
examples of too much order limiting our liberties as citizens. Any
censorship is simply unconstitutional therefore it limits the liberties of
the people. Anything that does not initiate force toward another is at our
liberty to view. But the government is trying to slowly take this liberty
away by censoring books and internet access. This not only inhibits the
learning process but also is an extreme waste of money, much needed money
that could be going to fund other suitable school activities.(Heisel, 1998)
Some school systems are simply putting filters that are intended to clean
the internet of all “offensive” but constitutionally sound material, these
filters are like a communist newspaper, whatever the government doesn't
like is filtered out. The power that they are given with these filters is
scary.
5. Clinton's affair was illegal, but it wasn't our business to
meddle in his private life. Critics of Kenneth Starr say that he purposely
pulled “skeletons out of the closet” to expose the whole Monica Lewinsky
scandal. They also say this act was unfair to Clinton. But Starr never
did anything unconstitutional or anything that he did not have the right to
do to incriminate Clinton. He used his liberties to obtain information and
documents that were meant under the constitution to be public knowledge and
slowly uncovered his evidence. He was scrutinized for doing this “dirty
work” but everyone must remeraber that he did nothing that was not allotted
to him by the Constitution and that is the bottom line. He could have
added racist remarks to Clinton in his report and he still should not have
been published because even though it seems wrong it is still his right.
Conclusion
In conclusion, legislators and citizens must take a look at what a
democracy is all about. A democracy caters to the beliefs, feelings, and
hatreRAB of everyone and plays no favorites. As laws keep being passed that
violate these liberties the governments choke hold on our actions and worRAB
is tightened. This seminar may have sounded like some “Michigan Militia”
type dissertation on the evils of the government but in fact it wasn't. It
was a statement to make the citizens of this country aware of the liberties
that they are giving up each day by either not expressing their beliefs any
way they feel fit or not speaking their mind in fear of some punishment by
a higher authority. This system of government has been proven to work but
there are always problems and the government has always wanted to be the
most efficient it can. So, when a citizen speaks out is slows down the
process of government, so obviously the government tries to silence these
critics. But one spoken word can stifle any government action this word is
LIBERTY!
Bibliography
1. Cunningham, Connie; “Natural Rights vs. Constitutional Rights”; ‘Freedom
League Newsletter', Aug/Sept. 86.
2. Huxtable, Fulton; “Hate Crime”; “Issues in Focus”, June 28, 1998.
3. AllPolitics. "Abortion." All Politics.
http://allpolitics.com/issues/topics/abortion.shtml October 16, 1996.
4. Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, “Liberty”, “Order”; 1998.
5. Heisel, Odeile; “K-12”; Internet Acceptable Use Policies; 1998.
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[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1097 [/FONT]