Rights and Responsibilities

Over the last several years there has been a lot of talk and demands for various rights: the right to medical care, the right to affordable housing, the right to marry whoever (or whatever) you choose, the right to stand on your head and spout wooden nickels. The one thing that stands out when you look at these demands is the fundamental ignorance of the people who are demanding these rights. They really do not understand exactly what a right is. They do not understand where rights originate. They do not understand that rights and responsibilities are opposite sides of the same coin.

At its most basic level, a right is any action a person can take that will not cause harm to another individual. This comes from our basic ability to make logical decisions. Our Creator gave us the gift of free will, and with it the requirement that we be responsible for our actions. P. J. O'Rourke said it well: "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." Every other right we have is derived from this gift of free will and our obligation to act responsibly. Free will is not free. There will be a Judgment.

When I hear mention of "Constitutional Rights" I get hives. The proper term should be "Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights". The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights does not grant anything to the people. It was designed to be a limit on the power of the people we chose to be our leaders. The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to constrain the government from infringing on the rights that the people had as a gift from their Creator. The right to free speech, assembly, and worship does not derive from the First Amendment, it comes from the nature of human beings as designed by God, and requires that you speak responsibly. The right to bear arms does not proceed from the Second Amendment, it is as basic as the ability to pick up a rock to protect yourself from an attack by a wolf. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to be able to defend yourself, and imposes the restriction that you act responsibly with your arms.

Since I mentioned the Second Amendment, let me expound a little. The amendment mentions "militia". In the time of the men who wrote the Constitution, "calling out the militia" meant to notify all able bodied men to assemble in a place that had been previously designated, to defend the village or to march to meet with other members of the militia to defend a larger area. Citizens knew that they had an obligation to defend their homes. They accepted this responsibility as a reciprocal to their ability to live in a certain area and conduct their lives as they saw fit. The freedom to choose the place they lived carried the responsibility to band together to defend it if necessary.

Our rights come from our Creator. Our Creator expects us to exercise them responsibly, and not infringe on another's rights in the process.

I know I will raise the ire of some readers when I state that there is no right to medical care. There is a right to seek medical care and a responsibility to compensate the provider for his skill and time. Medical care cannot be a right since there has to be a provider of medical assistance. The provider must give of himself to perform the service. To claim this as a right places a claim on part of the life of the provider, which restricts his ability to choose whether or not to perform the service. No man has a God-given right to control the life of another man to improve his own life.

Similarly, there is no right to affordable housing. As it is popularly defined, "affordable housing" means "I make $30,000 a year, have 8 kids, no husband, and can't live in a $500,000 house, so somebody has to give me one." This would require a major sacrifice on the part of the builder of the home in question. He would have to sell the house at a loss to get the person in question into it. This, at it's core, is theft. I think there was a Commandment someplace about theft.

Rights are God's gift. He expects us to use them wisely.

Be well and happy, thank God for your rights, and remember your responsibilities.