Small Town News

Blaming everything on the Second Bill of Rights

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A HERITAGE AND A HOPE

So you hadn't heard that Congress and the people passed a Second Bill of Rights?

Of course, you are familiar with the original Bill of Rights, our first Ten Amendments to the United States Constitution passed by Congress in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791.

First Amendment: freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly; freedom to petition the government over grievances. Second Amendment: right of the people to bear arms. Fourth Amendment: freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Tenth Amendment: "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Yes, of course, those are written in our hearts as American citizens ... aren't they?

But what about this Second Bill of Rights. When did it pass through Congress and when did the states ratify it?

And what does it say? And why do I say, "Blame it on the Second Bill of Rights'?

Mathew Spalding, in "We Still Hold These Truths," clarifies what took place in 1944 as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his Annual Message to Congress. In it Roosevelt outlined what he called a Second Bill of Rights:

"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fear of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war [World War II] is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being."

Consider the differences. Our Declaration of Independence acknowledges unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. Note: they are unalienable (or modernly spelled "inalienable"). Note also from whom these inalienable rights come: our Creator. These rights are "antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe" as expressed by John Adams. Government, including our U.S. Constitution and the original Bill of Rights, protects those liberties which afford equal opportunity.

But not so with the Second Bill of Rights. Who grants these rights? Not our Creator, but part of the created: government. And as stated a number of times before, if government grants them who can take away? Obviously, government. Such rights are not inalienable. Such rights are not really rights. As Richard Maybury explains, there are really then only permissions.

Roosevelt's vision did not work toward equal opportunity but equal outcome. To accomplish this goal of economic rights Roosevelt, and over the decades members of both political parties, have to take away a right of someone else, for instance that person's right to property. Consider the words of economist Walter E. Williams regarding the current issue of health care.

"For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else's rights, namely their rights to their earnings... The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces one to recognize that in order for government to give one American citizen a dollar, it must first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn. To argue that people have a right that imposes obligations on another is an absurd concept."

The answer is that no act of Congress so far as passed a Second Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution and clearly then no such Second Bill of Rights has gone to the States for ratification as amendments ought. But with insidious disdain for the Constitution and individual liberty the march of state coercion has grown and multiplied under the guise of "rights" granted by government, and in effect, crushed pillars upon which our true American dream was founded. Will we, the people, continue to permit this cancer to consume us?

Peter Johnston, an East Bernard resident, earned a history degree from Cornell University and is a former high school history teacher.



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© 2010 East Bernard Express East Bernard, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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