Normally I take anything coming from the collective desk of Scaife's braintrust with a grain of salt, but this time, they're actually right.
Though they can't help themselves on the spin. Here's the editorial:
Today is Bill of Rights Day -- an ideal time to refocus concepts of rights and responsibilities in keeping with the Founders'.So, what did they leave out? What did they spin?
"We poorly understand the elementary concept of rights," writes economist, adjunct faculty member and contributing scholar Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson for Grove City College's Center for Vision & Values. "Many Americans ... further cloud the issue by asserting that responsibilities frequently eclipse rights."
Protecting God-given and inalienable rights was "government's sole legitimate purpose" to the Founders, but with time and "progressive" social engineering, "clear understanding of fundamental rights has eroded." Dr. Hendrickson cites President Franklin Roosevelt's "Economic Bill of Rights" as an egregious example -- because if one citizen has a right to, say, a home, others must be compelled to provide it.
He points out that helping others is a moral -- not legal -- responsibility: "It makes no sense to say that those who work hard, are productive and have savings have a responsibility to provide for those who shirked that very same responsibility to provide for themselves."
Thanks to Hendrickson for reminding all of the Founders' perspective so all can better uphold our precious Bill of Rights.
They left out that it was Franklin Roosevelt (the boogie man of the braintrust's editorial) who proclaimed "Bill of Rights Day." He did it in response to a request by Congress.
And his defense is much cooler than the Trib's:
Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate December 15, 1941, as Bill of Rights Day. And I call upon the officials of the Government, and upon the people of the United States, to observe the day by displaying the flag of the United States on public buildings and by meeting together for such prayers and such ceremonies as may seem to them appropriate.As a reminder:
The first ten amendments, the great American charter of personal liberty and human dignity, became a part of the Constitution of the United States on the fifteenth day of December, 1791.
It is fitting that the anniversary of its adoption should be remembered by the Nation which, for one hundred and fifty years, has enjoyed the immeasurable privileges which that charter guaranteed: the privileges of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the free right to petition the Government for redress of grievances.
It is especially fitting that this anniversary should be remembered and observed by those institutions of a democratic people which owe their very existence to the guarantees of the Bill of Rights: the free schools, the free churches, the labor unions, the religious and educational and civic organizations of all kinds which, without the guarantee of the Bill of Rights, could never have existed; which sicken and disappear whenever, in any country, these rights are curtailed or withdrawn.
- Freedom of Religion means the freedom to build an Islamic Community Center on private property in Manhattan.
- Freedom of Speech means being able to protest a Rand Paul rally without getting your head stomped on.
- Freedom of The Press means being able to freely report about an administration's illegal outing of a CIA operative without being thrown in jail.
- Freedom of Assembly means being able to, well, peacefully get together in groups to discuss issues of the day without fear of any governmental intrusion.
- Freedom to Petition means that when your government illegally spies on you you have the right to bring the case in court.
Tomorrow's Beethoven's birthday, by the way.
