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Why Inalienable?

By George Baumler

  With the copies of the Declaration of Independence making the rounds, much attention is focused on the phrase "all men are created equal", but somewhat less on the phrase "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights".  The idea that common men were the king's equals was revolutionary, but perhaps more significant was the notion that men were born with rights that no one could take from them unless they defied the very nature of mankind.  Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness -- governments have sought all manner of justification to deny or infringe on these basic rights since the beginning of recorded history.

  Now, in a society in which the citizens elect their leaders, it is clear that the government derives its power from the electorate.  As a point of logic, the rights of the elected government are the rights of the people and therefore are not superior to the rights of the people.  If the idea of the divine right of kings were applied to elected governments, then it would follow that we have no rights, only such privileges as the divinely inspired and empowered government deems necessary.  If that is the case, we are no better off than we would be under a monarchy.  Inalienable rights are rights we were born with, and freedom is the natural state of existence.  If freedom were an unnatural state, no creature would rebel at being caged.  What is immoral for one man to do to another man is also immoral for the government to do, since the government gets its authority from us.

  Your life is yours.  You have as much right to defend it as do the police you empower, and with whatever means available.  The tyrants seek to deny that right’s existence with victim disarmament legislation.  Your liberty is ebbing with every form you are forced to fill out, every permit you are required to obtain, and in countless other ways, some not so obvious.  Your happiness is yours to pursue from the confines of your shrinking cage.  Rights may be inalienable, but they apparently are not undeniable.

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