Your Rights & Your Opinions

While I have done this many times in the past, I spent yesterday reviewing our Bill of Rights, which are amendments to the United States Constitution. I was motivated by the breakfast boys that love to have a spirited debate on just about any and all subjects. The subject of the day was “we ot’ta hang that SOB Colin Kaepernick” for causing all this trouble”. They went on to blame him for everything for racial tensions, a higher crime rate, general erosion of the economy and a number of other equally ludicrous fabrications. The breakfast boys have it right and they won’t hesitate to tell you as much!

I got the award for being the 2nd biggest trouble maker when I reminded them that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were identified as common criminals by the King of England for their treasonous acts, but in time were recognized as hero’s. They refused to see the similarity and I was “held in contempt” & put in Time Out until tomorrow morning when a new topic will rise again. Even more comical was the fact that several of these men are. All can recite their oaths when they were inducted, but now claim they only took those oaths so they could get into the fight.

Amazingly, there has been quite a backlash towards others for taking similar stands. In California there have been a few teachers that are docking grades for those that choose not to stand during the pledge of allegiance; in one school a teacher grabbed a student and yanked them out of their chair. Strangely, the ACLU doesn’t seem to be very concerned, which in earlier times would caused a firestorm.

Needless to say, there are certain actions in this country that can cause tremendous passions of opinion and action that, in themselves, present an honest opinion, but when a persons other rights are violated in that pursuit, all justification for a countering opinion are lost. As my father taught me, arguing for what you believe in is an absolute right up until somebody throws the first punch. At that point ignorance has taken over and a person that needs to be violent to get their point across also shows their intense ignorance on the topic and a few more, like the aforementioned documents.

Colin Kaepernick showed a simple act of civil disobedience, although since there is no law that requires a person to stand for the national anthem or to recite the pledge of allegiance it could be argued that they are not actually being disobedient, they are simply stating their disagreements in a more symbolic form. Mr. Kaepernick point is well made and only the most uninformed can claim that all is well in the USA and that all police are good guys. The fact is that the great majority of law enforcement officers are good, solid citizens that follow the law to the letter; the problem is clearly what happens to the bad ones when they are caught and why there are special laws to protect bad cops, even when they are clearly bad. Simple ideas like “all men are created equal” should be the guide and no person is “more equal” than others.

Yet, we continue to see the further promotion of the idea of “us verses them” in socioeconomic terms through out our country. Police vs. minorities, rich vs. poor, educated vs. lesser educated. The number of examples is endless.

Personally, I believe teaching Civic’s, The Constitution & The Bill of Rights should be taught at a young age and repeated every few years until all know it, understand it, and can speak to it. Education solves many social ills and with our own system falling behind the rest of the world, we need to do something about it NOW. I have spoken several times on what it takes to overthrow a country. A good look at our current education system simply speaks volumes ……
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created Sep 2016
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