Act Acting » Acting School » We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights

We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny Interesting controversy. One would think that the Declaration of Independence, being a core document of this county’s foundation, was required reading already. One would, if one was naive regarding the state of public education in the US :-) However, there’s a difference between reading, studying, and rote recitation.  It _is_ an interesting controversy, particularly since it seems likely that the relevant portions were chosen specifically to to avoid the church/state separation issue. However, there is constitutional precedent against enforced establishment of political orthodoxy, too, which is being ignored. Though there are states currently in violation, the pledge itself (with or without God) cannot be *required* to be recited by school children, and the only way it’s constitutional is if any child can opt out of saying it for any reason at all. Sunny

seems that only the women are capable of it. fascinating. — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny Interesting controversy. One would think that the Declaration of Independence, being a core document of this county’s foundation, was required reading already.

One would, if one was naive regarding the state of public education in the US :-) However, there’s a difference between reading, studying, and rote recitation.  It _is_ an interesting controversy, particularly since it seems likely that the relevant portions were chosen specifically to to avoid the church/state separation issue. However, there is constitutional precedent against enforced establishment of political orthodoxy, too, which is being ignored. Though there are states currently in violation, the pledge itself (with or without God) cannot be *required* to be recited by school children, and the only way it’s constitutional is if any child can opt out of saying it for any reason at all. Sunny

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The paradox is amazing. Sunny …an wasted on people who have progressive values in which lifestyles conflict with tradition and its moral authority. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a people who’s values were founded in patriotism. Today patriotism doesn’t jive with the lifestyle of "peace through apathy."

Why the implicit dichotomy? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Those who refuse to pledge allegiance to America in my opinion, when in the face of inequities of oppression, will succumb to tyranny rather than fight against it. As a patriot and as a Federalist, my allegiance is to the foundations set forth in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and in Boy Scout Creed, To do my duty to God and country. It’s not brain washing, it’s thanking my Creator for the Grace He has shown on America the beautiful. Those who take America for granted, have little allegiance and little patriotism. It is for those people I suspect are disenfranchised from the American Way. It isn’t government, it’s the spirit of St. Lewis, it’s Baseball on Saturday in the park, church on Sunday and sitting down to eat as a family, disciplining ones self in school and higher education that make for a good life…in my opinion. The choice is yours to live a lifestyle outside discipline or within. Those that value the virtues of Goodness share in the unalienable rights. For those not willing to live within the norms of life will soon find their behavior controlled.

Nice speech on American values, till that point. I urge President Bush, his conservitive judges and a Republican Congress to enforce sedition laws to remind people there ‘is’ little difference between political decent/civil disobedience and treason/sedition.

And when that happens, you’ll find me standing for American values for freedom for individual liberty for all the noble things you’ve espoused earlier and against you. You forget, sir :-) My rights are, indeed, inalienable, despite your characterization of their free exercise as treason.  The moment you suggest that my rights are enjoyed only at the good pleasure of the government, you undercut the foundations of the system you claim to support. Sunny

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny …an wasted on people who have progressive values in which lifestyles conflict with tradition and its moral authority. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a people who’s values were founded in patriotism. Today patriotism doesn’t jive with the lifestyle of "peace through apathy." Those who refuse to pledge allegiance to America in my opinion, when in the face of inequities of oppression, will succumb to tyranny rather than fight against it. As a patriot and as a Federalist, my allegiance is to the foundations set forth in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and in Boy Scout Creed, To do my duty to God and country. It’s not brain washing, it’s thanking my Creator for the Grace He has shown on America the beautiful. Those who take America for granted, have little allegiance and little patriotism. It is for those people I suspect are disenfranchised from the American Way. It isn’t government, it’s the spirit of St. Lewis, it’s Baseball on Saturday in the park, church on Sunday and sitting down to eat as a family, disciplining ones self in school and higher education that make for a good life…in my opinion. The choice is yours to live a lifestyle outside discipline or within. Those that value the virtues of Goodness share in the unalienable rights. For those not willing to live within the norms of life will soon find their behavior controlled. I urge President Bush, his conservitive judges and a Republican Congress to enforce sedition laws to remind people there ‘is’ little difference between political decent/civil disobedience and treason/sedition. — CB "Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality, nor wisdom, nor interest will ever govern nations or parties against their vanity, their pride, their resentment or revenge, or their avarice or ambition. Nothing but force and power and strength can restrain them." –John Adams all of the arguments are invalid. there is not enough time. assuming that the argument is for saving the nation. You demonstrate your apathy by lack of moral conviction

i wouldnt call it apathy. i am not saying that giving the children love and helping them is the thing to do. what i am saying is i believe we are living the final chapter of the Bible. in that case according to my interpretation then something will happen that we the people of the united states will not be able to avoid. i believe the u s is the whore country and if that is so then the u s will eventually fall. that is merely my interpretation of the Bible. — *Love* is all u need. What happens when an el Qaeda solder in plane closes comes up to you and says "hate is all I need"? Would you die for the love of your family at the hands of a butcher or fight for the love of your family?

absolutely. but this does not change the Bible. i believe for years, possibly for about 50 years this country has been on a decline from within. i am merely stating that is it possible that the completion of the Bible will come about before the american state can cleanse itself. the love of money is the stongest belief in the united states at the moment, from what i have observed. if u go back into history u will find love of money is a strong motivator. other countries have eventually failed because of it . Rome in my opinion collapsed partially because of the romans love of money. compare rome and the united states and u have a lot of similarities. love of money vast military power. corruption greed etc etc etc. its there. its quite interesting to learn if u study responses from chrisitians in this day and age u will find that many live in fear. i believe it was Patrick Henry who stated "Give me liberty or give me death? americans of today say that they are willing to give up their liberties in order to not have death. if u look at the differences of thinking of   americans u have to come to a conclusion that shifting the way people think if it comes about at all will not happen fast enough. u cant legislate morality. it has to come from within. if the vast majority of amerians were true chrisitians then this possibility would be feasible. most are not. — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.    Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act?

As they’re unalienable, all of them.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny

Interesting controversy. One would think that the Declaration of Independence, being a core document of this county’s foundation, was required reading already.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny …an wasted on people who have progressive values in which lifestyles conflict with tradition and its moral authority. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a people who’s values were founded in patriotism. Today patriotism doesn’t jive with the lifestyle of "peace through apathy." Those who refuse to pledge allegiance to America in my opinion, when in the face of inequities of oppression, will succumb to tyranny rather than fight against it. As a patriot and as a Federalist, my allegiance is to the foundations set forth in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and in Boy Scout Creed, To do my duty to God and country. It’s not brain washing, it’s thanking my Creator for the Grace He has shown on America the beautiful. Those who take America for granted, have little allegiance and little patriotism. It is for those people I suspect are disenfranchised from the American Way. It isn’t government, it’s the spirit of St. Lewis, it’s Baseball on Saturday in the park, church on Sunday and sitting down to eat as a family, disciplining ones self in school and higher education that make for a good life…in my opinion. The choice is yours to live a lifestyle outside discipline or within. Those that value the virtues of Goodness share in the unalienable rights. For those not willing to live within the norms of life will soon find their behavior controlled. I urge President Bush, his conservitive judges and a Republican Congress to enforce sedition laws to remind people there ‘is’ little difference between political decent/civil disobedience and treason/sedition. — CB "Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality, nor wisdom, nor interest will ever govern nations or parties against their vanity, their pride, their resentment or revenge, or their avarice or ambition. Nothing but force and power and strength can restrain them." –John Adams all of the arguments are invalid. there is not enough time. assuming that the argument is for saving the nation.

You demonstrate your apathy by lack of moral conviction — *Love* is all u need.

What happens when an el Qaeda solder in plane closes comes up to you and says "hate is all I need"? Would you die for the love of your family at the hands of a butcher or fight for the love of your family?

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny …an wasted on people who have progressive values in which lifestyles conflict with tradition and its moral authority. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a people who’s values were founded in patriotism. Today patriotism doesn’t jive with the lifestyle of "peace through apathy." Those who refuse to pledge allegiance to America in my opinion, when in the face of inequities of oppression, will succumb to tyranny rather than fight against it. As a patriot and as a Federalist, my allegiance is to the foundations set forth in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and in Boy Scout Creed, To do my duty to God and country. It’s not brain washing, it’s thanking my Creator for the Grace He has shown on America the beautiful. Those who take America for granted, have little allegiance and little patriotism. It is for those people I suspect are disenfranchised from the American Way. It isn’t government, it’s the spirit of St. Lewis, it’s Baseball on Saturday in the park, church on Sunday and sitting down to eat as a family, disciplining ones self in school and higher education that make for a good life…in my opinion. The choice is yours to live a lifestyle outside discipline or within. Those that value the virtues of Goodness share in the unalienable rights. For those not willing to live within the norms of life will soon find their behavior controlled. I urge President Bush, his conservitive judges and a Republican Congress to enforce sedition laws to remind people there ‘is’ little difference between political decent/civil disobedience and treason/sedition. — CB "Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality, nor wisdom, nor interest will ever govern nations or parties against their vanity, their pride, their resentment or revenge, or their avarice or ambition. Nothing but force and power and strength can restrain them." –John Adams

all of the arguments are invalid. there is not enough time. assuming that the argument is for saving the nation. — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school. What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny

…an wasted on people who have progressive values in which lifestyles conflict with tradition and its moral authority. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a people who’s values were founded in patriotism. Today patriotism doesn’t jive with the lifestyle of "peace through apathy." Those who refuse to pledge allegiance to America in my opinion, when in the face of inequities of oppression, will succumb to tyranny rather than fight against it. As a patriot and as a Federalist, my allegiance is to the foundations set forth in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and in Boy Scout Creed, To do my duty to God and country. It’s not brain washing, it’s thanking my Creator for the Grace He has shown on America the beautiful. Those who take America for granted, have little allegiance and little patriotism. It is for those people I suspect are disenfranchised from the American Way. It isn’t government, it’s the spirit of St. Lewis, it’s Baseball on Saturday in the park, church on Sunday and sitting down to eat as a family, disciplining ones self in school and higher education that make for a good life…in my opinion. The choice is yours to live a lifestyle outside discipline or within. Those that value the virtues of Goodness share in the unalienable rights. For those not willing to live within the norms of life will soon find their behavior controlled. I urge President Bush, his conservitive judges and a Republican Congress to enforce sedition laws to remind people there ‘is’ little difference between political decent/civil disobedience and treason/sedition. — CB "Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality, nor wisdom, nor interest will ever govern nations or parties against their vanity, their pride, their resentment or revenge, or their avarice or ambition. Nothing but force and power and strength can restrain them." –John Adams

Response:

State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school.

What’s interesting is speculation on what the result will be. Will it, like the pledge, become only a series of random words recited by rote, with no meaning attached? Will it have the effect of reminding children that, though they are forced to *say* the words, what the words mean is that they should *not* be coerced into repeating them? Will it provoke a revolutionary response later, or has the borg coopted the language of the revolution and made it meaningless by repitition? The paradox is amazing. Sunny

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.    Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act? All of them. I would think President Bush believes as the Federalist do. can u explain in detail what the fedralists and pres bush have in common.

For at least three years I’ve been posting "THE FEDERALIST" news letter to the political news groups. I’ve you haven’t taken the time to read just one, nothing I can say will enlighten you to the parallels which the Federalists, Bush and America’s forefathers share….we’ll, here’s a few. Small government through low taxes. Government should not be the end all to peoples lives. Welfare should be limited to Food, Shelter, Clothing and 3-6 months unemployment. Government should not interfere in markets unless a monopoly exists. Judges should not have their religious alleviation be a litmus test for a Godless senate to approve. The 10 Commandments were once on display in most government buildings as a reminder of God is watching, you better be truthful! One more thing. Enforce sedition laws It is the ACLU which seek to deny our unalienable rights. If you really are concerned go to their web site and read what their about. They seek to destroy the foundations on which America was founded, Freedom ‘of’ religion, not ‘from’ religion can u give us a url so we can check it out ?

I’m not your mother – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.    Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act? All of them. I would think President Bush believes as the Federalist do.

can u explain in detail what the fedralists and pres bush have in common. It is the ACLU which seek to deny our unalienable rights. If you really are concerned go to their web site and read what their about. They seek to destroy the foundations on which America was founded, Freedom ‘of’ religion, not ‘from’ religion

can u give us a url so we can check it out ? — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.    Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act?

All of them. I would think President Bush believes as the Federalist do. It is the ACLU which seek to deny our unalienable rights. If you really are concerned go to their web site and read what their about. They seek to destroy the foundations on which America was founded, Freedom ‘of’ religion, not ‘from’ religion

Response:

State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights.

This guy, like you, is a right wing nut, struggling to make our children parrot more G-D talk in school.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.    Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act?

i think this would be a great start to having debate if chrisitians and non believers and even chrisitians that are not republicans would just get into it . how bout it ? — *Love* is all u need.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights.

   Just exactly which of those Unalienable Rights do you feel we still have after Bush’s PATRIOT Act?

Response:

We Ought To Encourage Children To Believe In Unalienable Rights  By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler Do people have unalienable rights? Or can a religious, ethnic, or political majority justly do whatever it chooses to a religious, ethnic, or political minority? At a time when a Princeton University professor is arguing that a nation can justly kill the handicapped or infirm if doing so increases the total sum of its citizen’s happiness, this is a hot question . . . And it is being fought out in the New Jersey Legislature at this very moment! State Senator Gerry Cardinale and State Assemblyman Michael Carroll have introduced legislation which would have New Jersey’s public school students recite a 20-second passage from the Declaration of Independence each day, following the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific phrases to be recited are those proclaiming that people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. Many organizations have their members recite creedal statements because their experience proves that reciting basic p rinciples encourages respect for them. Cardinale and Carroll intend for their suggested recitation to encourage our children to respect unalienable rights. Belief in unalienable rights has helped preserve American liberty by causing the nation’s religious, ethnic, and political majorities to restrain themselves and not amend away the Constitution’s protections of religious, ethnic and political minorities. It has also moved Americans to fight for social justice. The phrases Cardinale and Carroll want recited are those that propelled the abolition movement, the suffrage movement, and the civil rights movement. They constitute the propositions to which Abraham Lincoln said our nation is dedicated. So why do some legislators oppose Cardinale and Carroll’s bill? Opponents say that the phrase "all men are created equal" is offensive because it excludes women. But the bill requires teachers to inform students that the word "men" in the Declaration’s 18th century usage refers to all humankind. Therefore, one suspects opponents have other objections. After you debate them, the real reason for their opposition becomes clear. They know the bill would encourage respect for unalienable rights, but unlike the bill’s supporters, they do not want New Jersey’s child ren to believe in this traditional American principle. We live in a post-modern world, and the defining characteristic of modern philosophy is the belief that all truth is subjective and relative. Modernists may value principles such as freedom of religion, but they deny the existence of objective moral tru ths and of unalienable or God-given rights. They want citizens to feel free to change the principles they value and the principles their government protects — including, if people choose, rights like freedom of religion. At the heart of it, the battle in Trenton is between legislators who want America to recommit itself to its traditional conception of unalienable rights, and modernist legislators who want to sever this commitment. I support the traditionalists. America’s founding generation put justice above democracy. They dedicated this country to the principle of unalienable rights and drafted constitutional provisions to limit our otherwise democratic government from acting against these rights. They crit icized the democratic absolutism of the French Revolution’s modernist philosophies because they believed that what the majority wills is not always right. Europe went in a different direction. There, modernism became dominant. Modernism’s belief that there is no such thing as unalienable rights begat socialism: the belief that the power of the state should not be limited. History shows where these different American and European ways of thinking led. At the same time that America’s commitment to unalienable rights led it to becoming more free and just, the growth of socialist thinking in Europe led Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany to becoming murderous. Americans sacrificed to defeat these socialist regimes. But one wonders if our sacrifices were in vain. Socialist thinking is gaining currency in America. The difficulty that Cardinale and Carroll are having in passing their bill is one sign of this. The tenuring of that professor in Princeton is another. In the past, he would have been derided for justifying murder. But today, he is being heralded as a cutting edge thinker. America’s democratic socialists do not think of themselves as socialists. They simply see themselves as supporting the right of majorities to work their will. They say they support rights, but by this they mean civil or government-given rights, not the unalienable rights of traditional American thought that government can never justly take away. They say they support limited government, but they want the limits on government to be moveable whenever the majority chooses. America is at a crossroads. Will America continue its historic striving for justice, or will it descend into a despotism of the majority? The direction it goes may be decided in the New Jersey Legislature. The State Assembly has passed Cardinale and Carroll’s bill with the intention of recommitting America to its historic national principles. But the legislation will die in the State Senate if New Jerseyans do not call their State Senator and demand that they pass the bill also. I urge the reader to make this call immediately. There are American principles worth fighting to preserve. Our traditional concepts of truth, justice, and unalienable rights are among them! http://www.schundler.org/schundler/unalienable_rights.html — CB "For I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6a). "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). http://www.bible.com/answers/agift.html

Response:

Related Posts

Leave a Reply