I was pondering our constitution today and had a thought that I've continued to roll around in my head. As the constitution reads;
"that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It has occurred to me that these are placed in this sentence very intentionally, not just that these exist, but that they are listed from greatest to least. Do you agree?
Life - We have a right to this above all else. You do not have the right to take the life of someone else.
Liberty - Your freedom. You have freedom as long as exercising this freedom does not take the life of another individual or interfere with the liberty of another.
Pursuit of Happiness - You have the right to pursue your happiness anyway you see fit. Just so long as it does not deprive another individual of their life or freedom.
This is how I believe we should make judgements regarding our laws and our lives. It makes complex issues much more simple.
When looking at the abortion issue we all agree that murder is wrong, and we all agree that a woman has right to do what she wishes with her body. So how do you make the decision. Well according to what I believe our founders were trying to tell us. Your liberty does not extend beyond the life of another.
What about drugs. I think I might be on a limb here, but as long as you are not depriving another of their freedom (liberty) or their life, you should be free to do so.
2 comments:
As I said in my own post a while back, when it comes to pursuit of happiness, it seems that everyone has forgotten that little part of the phrase "pursuit of".
We seem to have devolved into a a society in which we feel we have to be happy, or someone needs to pay up so we can be that way. God forbid anyone actually find their happiness on their own merits!
Now that I think of it, buster, I think you need to start feeding me some sort of monthly paycheck, we'll call it the "friend fee" Which by the way, you can no longer opt out of, you put in too much time, and the shock of you withdrawing from our friendship would cause me undue stress, which would ultimatley lead to a lawsuit awarding me, oh say, 4.5 million dollars sounds about right.
So from now on, so that I can be happy, I'll accept CASH (no checks, you can stop payment on those!) payments weekly of $1000. Thanks friend.
I think we all have the right to pursue happiness (in whatever form you feel it is for yourself) as long as you don't detrimentally affect another.
Clearly some television programs lately are infringing on my rights...
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