The anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of The
United States of America!
There are many so many things citizens of The United States
take for granted. If you read The Constitution you will quickly see so many
things you do daily that were specifically written out as an Unalienable Right.
Why did the founding fathers and those who came after feel
the need to put these Rights in writing? That's simple. They'd just fought the
Revolutionary War so they could stop having these rights repressed by
tyrannical governments.
The very First Amendment of the Constitution was:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances." You know when you say Obama
is a jerk, or that George W. Bush was a war monger. Or you state that the
Christian God is a fairy tale. If you said that before the Revolutionary War
you would be jailed for it... sometimes you would have your tongue cut out, or
just be hung for treasonous speech. Yeah, it really was that bad.
The Second Amendment was the Right to Bear Arms:" A
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Why
was this the second thing the founding fathers thought to put in to place?
Simple, again, they just fought a war to win their freedom and wanted to ensure
that if anything ever went wrong in the future that The People would be able to
fight to keep their Rights. They wanted as many citizens to be armed as
possible so that they could challenge the government should it turn tyrannical
at any point in the future.
The Third Amendment added was" No Soldier shall, in
time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor
in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." This was a major
issue in times past but less of an issue now. Still something to look up and
understand the importance of. If you are a poor farmer and you suddenly were
told you had to house and feed 20 soldiers, you wouldn't be very happy.
The Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but
upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Is
to prevent legal harassment. If you don't have a justifiable reason to accuse
someone of a crime, no law enforcement agency can search or seize your person,
home, or property." (Again, this was a huge issue pre-revolution and there
are even issues today along the same lines.)
The Fifth Amendment: "No person shall be held to answer
for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or
indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval
forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public
danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in
jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without
just compensation." This may be one the the most important parts of the
entire document. It is also why 2nd amendment supporters and many others are
against the current "No fly, No Buy" gun restriction laws the Democratic
Party keeps pushing for.
These are just the first 5 amendments of The Constitution.
There are many more and as a citizen of The United States of America, you have
the right to know them all. You can read the entire constitution at will in
many places. The sections I copied are from http://www.constitutionday.com/constitutional-amendments-bill-of-rights.html
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