The rights - and wrongs - of man

              by Charley Reese, Syndicated Columnist


   (published July 10, 1991, "Athens News Courier" Athens, AL)


     When we celebrated Independence Day, we celebrated much more
than the physical separation of a British colony from the
motherland.  We celebrated a revolution.

     The Declaration of Independence is much more than a
rhetorical flourish.  It lays out the three basic premises of the
American Revolution.

     The first is that the rights of man precede government.  The
phrase, "...all men are created equal and endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights" broke the bonds with the
old world where rights, such as they were, were favors granted by
the government and where people were, by birth, separated into
two classes with different privileges.

     The American Revolution said rights were a condition of
birth for all people.  That was and is a truly revolutionary
statement.  In our own country today, many Americans, ignorant of
their own revolution, suppose that government is the source of
our rights.  Not so.

     The second premise of the revolution spells out the proper
role of government.  It is to protect these (natural) rights, the
Declaration says, that men institute governments.  The old saying
that the government is the servant of the people derives from
this premise.  Its sole function, from the Revolution's point of
view, was to protect the rights of the people - not to
redistribute income, provide housing and medical care and
welfare.  These are tasks that people may assign to government if
they wish, but the fundamental purpose of government is to
protect the people's rights.

     So the third basic premise of the Revolution, contained in
the Declaration, says when government fails to protect the people
or becomes abusive of their rights, then the people have the
right to alter or abolish it.

     Thus, the American people today, should they decide our
present government is abusive, have a right to change it or
overthrow it.  The American Revolution was in a true sense a
permanent revolution since its principles transcend time and
place and remain active regardless of circumstances.

     A nation of subservient people, however, fearful of their
government and toadying and obsequious to its officeholders, are
not in a million years capable of a revolution or worthy of
liberty.



     Sam Adams, one of our Revolutionary leaders, said it well:


     "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
     tranquility of servitude better than the
     animating contest of freedom, go home from us in
     peace.  We ask not your counsels or your arms.
     Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
     May your chains set lightly upon you, and may
     posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."


     Moreover, the Constitution, which laid out the framework of
our government, is based on these revolutionary premises.  For
example, the Second Amendment says the government may not
infringe on the people's right to keep and bear arms - an
absolute necessity if the people are, in fact, to have the right
to alter or abolish a government that becomes abusive.  The
stupid modern sophistry that only state militias have the right
to keep arms contradicts the philosophy as well as the historical
record of the Revolution.

     State government, too, are instituted to protect rights and
may be altered or abolished if they fail or become abusive.  The
Declaration says people have all the rights and government has
only the few allotted to it by the people for clearly specified
purposes.

     Of course people are free only if they declare themselves to
be free and are willing to fight for their freedom.  If liberty
be not valued, then no document is going to keep the chains off
our necks.