Rights and their origin
Submitted by Cat Daddy on September 5 2001 07:28:26
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In his thread "Precisely" A.I. Watcher says: "The rights and privilages we enjoy are structured and enforced by the political institutions we form as a society. Those institutions grant and deny rights and privileges as they please. The basic problem here is that many Christians are working to have the U.S. government deny basic rights to gay people. It's not enough for them to practice their beliefs. They have to work to force them on other people. All the philisophical claptrap in the world won't change that - especially clapcrap about a god granting me rights. That may be an idea that's OK for children and feebleminded people but it's surely not something the queer rights movement gives two shits about." It appears Watcher has become the spokesperson for the queer rights movement. If so, then the queer rights movement has forgotten the source of the freedoms it now enjoys. Americans enjoy more freedoms and advantages than any country in the history of the world. Our founding fathers created a government unlike any that the world had ever seen. That there have been only a few changes or amendments to the original Constitution is a credit to their genius. Watcher and a few others have been quick to point out that gays deserve to have the rights they feel have been deprived of since "all men are created equal". I agree that all men are created equal. I am also glad that they are quick to quote the Declaration of Independence. However, Watcher needs to remember the complete sentence and not just a part. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Watcher maintains that human beings through political institutions (or governments) create and grant rights. Now what is it the Declaration of Independence says? "We hold these truths [not beliefs or opinions] to be self-evident [evident without proof or reasoning] that all men are created equal, that they are endowed [to provide gratuitously] by their Creator [God] with certain inalienable [incapable of being surrendered or transferred] rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Gee, the men Watcher credits with our rights claim that it is God who grants them. Claptrap, Watcher? And who does Watcher say that this kind of an idea is OK for? Children and feebleminded people? Wow, Watcher, the founders of our country feebleminded? Now who's being arrogant? And further, Watcher says, "Those institutions grant and deny rights and privileges as they please." Again, our founding fathers call our rights "inalienable" which means that they cannot be surrendered or transferred. We can't even give them away! So Watcher, I stand by my statements because they conform with what our founding fathers said in the Declaration of Independence. Now who cares what "the queer rights movement gives two shits about"? |
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