The Declaration says it is the job of government to secure Human Rights.
And “Life Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness” was never meant to be a complete list
Related Topics: Why We Fight; More Human Rights For More Human Beings
You've heard about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I'm here to tell you that is not, and was never intended to be, a complete list. Now that phrase life liberty and the pursuit of happiness comes from the Declaration of Independence. That declaration made quite a number of statements which were pretty radical for their time. They are even perceived of as being radical today. Well that's who we are. The most well-known part of the Declaration of Independence, from the preamble, says that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by whatever created them with certain unalienable rights. It also says that the main job of government is to secure those rights. What I'm talking about today are those unalienable rights. Now Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the declaration, and he mentions three. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. But before enumerating the rights he says “among these” --- among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So he is saying there are more! And I think if you pressed Mr. Jefferson and his colleagues in authorizing the declaration Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin they would agree that “among these” are also – – – the right to own property; the right to practice one's religion and have one's own beliefs; the right to travel and live where one pleases. Also the right to establish a business ----- or to choose one's own employer. The right to choose one's wife. ----- Notice I say wife, not spouse. These rights were for men; but not necessarily for women. ---- I'll be talking about that in just a minute or two. Getting back to those other (un-enumerated, but still unalienable Rights: The ones I just mentioned would I think be agreed upon by all three authors. But Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin might also have added – – – the right to not be owned, the right to not be the property of another man. Mr. Jefferson might not agree with that one. Actually …. we ended up fighting a war over that in the 1860s, but I think that today we all agree that it is among the unalienable rights that you can't be owned by another person. So ------ that right was not universally accepted before and is now. ! ----- The rights expand over time. As the nation has developed, the number of unalienable rights that we recognize as being “among these” has grown. Also the group of humans who possess these unalienable rights has expanded over time. African-Americans who were no longer property after the 1860s acquired many of the rights ---- though not all. And lost some over time, only to have them restored in the 1960s. Women as I mentioned before did not possess the unalienable rights in 1776. Abigail Adams who, through her husband, contributed to the writing of the declaration was not a man, so her rights, such as they were, were not considered unalienable. Women received some unalienable rights in the 1920s and more in the 1960s. African-Americans and women are among the more obvious groups who have obtained new rights over time. But there are others. So over time there is an expansion of the number of rights, and an expansion of the groups of humans who possess them. You could say this whole process actually started in the year 1215. when the king of england granted some limited rights to a limited group of noblemen in a document called the Magna Carta. Before 1215 the humans who were considered to have unalienable rights pretty much limited to the rulers. The Magna Carta established some rights for the nobility, the English barons. Later all white male landowners had some unalienable rights and those were ultimately extended to all white men. Then all male citizens, then they included females. Later some rights were granted to immigrants. As I mentioned, the rights of African-Americans were granted in the 1860s eroded over the next century reestablished in the 1960s. Now I would maintain that the unalienable rights bestowed by the creator of humans have always applied to all of these individuals, but the United States government and our collective social understanding has taken some time before acknowledging all those individuals as possessing unalienable rights. As a matter of fact in recent years, as the government has withdrawn some of the rights of humans. They are not allowed to do that. Those rights are unalienable! The government has also had the audacity to declare that human rights belong to corporations and other nonhuman entities. That's downright ridiculous! This has got to stop. The united states of america was established on a declaration of unalienable human rights the american dream is based on expansion of those rights. Any government which does not secure those rights is not doing its job. And a government like this one which is trying to take them away needs to be replaced. If I haven't convinced you yet that it is time for a revolution, I hope you will play some of my other videos, especially the sequel to this one: “Among These Part 2; Ronnie Rodeo and the Withdrawal of Human Rights”
This time I'd like to talk about how the rights of Americans are under attack.
You've heard about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In part one if this series: “Among These, Human Rights and the American Dream” I pointed out that “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is not, and was never intended to be, a complete list.
If you haven't played that video already, I recommend you do so before continuing with this one.
In that video, I pointed out that the number of rights that our government recognizes as being unalienable has grown over the years.
Also the definition of who our government recognizes as possessing those rights has grown to include women, former slaves, and almost all human beings.
And this has been a prime driver of our success as a people.
But since 1980, the process has been reversed.
The government has been taking away rights
and restricting which humans are allowed to exercise their rights.
They have been taking away rights from humans. But they have been giving them to non human entities. The supreme court said that corporations can have the same rights as humans !!!!
well i'll tell you this: any rights corporations have are not unalienable. They are not bestowed by the creator of human beings.
As a matter of fact the creator of corporations and similar entities is government. Government can bestow and withdraw rights to Corporations.
Now i'm not going to say any more about corporations in this video. but I discuss them in more detail in some of my other videos.
So even though corporations' rights can be taken away by the government ---Human rights are unalienable and beyond the reach of government.
The declaration said so!
Another thing they have been doing is giving special privileges to aristocracies. That is a clear violation of the declaration. But it is also something I discuss in other videos.
Here i'm talking mostly about human rights. And, as I noted in part 1, the declaration specifically declares that the main purpose of government is to secure the unalienable rights of human persons.
And over time since 1776, the unalienable rights which America recognizes and the human persons which America recognizes as having those unalienable rights has grown.
And this has been one of the secrets of our success as a nation and a people. More rights for more people generates progress of all kinds. It unleashes human creativity, and builds wealth.
It has created an optimistic nation of empowered individuals, "we the people".
It has enabled entrepreneurs.
In an environment of expanding human rights young people with new ideas have the resources to try them out.
Many may fail, but it is a learning experience for them and they are not completely ruined by their failure. Because they still have their human rights.
and while many fail, some succeed spectacularly and benefit all.
I talk more about this in my video in “geniuses”
The progress of expanding rights has not been steady, and there have been setbacks. But there have also been times of rapid improvement
the Magna Carta in 1215 which established some rights for some people.
Then in 1776 at the time of declaration the three enumerated unalienable rights
and others specified later in the Constitution of the United States. Especially in the bill of rights.
In the 1830s, the Jacksonian Democrats established more rights for more humans
in the 1860s the war between the states led to rights being expanded
and then in the early 20th century during the progressive era more progress was made.
Moving forward, the 1930s saw the new deal,
the 1960s the civil rights, feminist, and antiwar movements broadened both the rights and the individuals who possess them.
To the point where our rights included:
Freedom from unreasonable force & imprisonment
Right to Bear Arms
To disagree with the government
Right to Fresh Water and Sanitation
Sexual Reproductive Rights for both men and women
Shelter
Electric Power
Money and Credit
Heat and Air Conditioning
Health Care
Education
(laugh) Now you may be listening to that list and thinking, wait a minute.
African-Americans don't really have freedom from unreasonable force and imprisonment.
Sexual reproductive rights for women are being taken away in many states.
The people of Flint Michigan don't seem to have the right to fresh water.
A whole lot of folks can no longer afford an education.
And an increasing number of Americans are becoming homeless.
What's going on here?
Well we were doing pretty well up until 1980.
when something I call the Ronnie rodeo reactionary Republican revolution started. And that's been going on now for almost 40 years.
During that time we have made a little bit of progress. But mostly we've been going backwards.
The United States government has been taking away the unalienable rights of its citizens and residents. And reducing the number of human beings it even considers to possess any unalienable rights.
Now this government was founded on a declaration which declared that the rights of humans, among which are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are unalienable.
They are given by the creator of those humans and cannot be taken away by any government.
As a matter of fact the declaration specifically states that one of the main purposes of government is to secure those rights for those human beings.
But Ronnie rodeo was a con man working for a group of evil aristocrats and corporations.
He was a pretty smooth con man. And he fooled a lot of people.
The con has been going on ever since.
But ….. the guy who is operating the con right now.
The guy who is fronting for those corporations and aristocrats ….. is not nearly as smooth or as good an actor as Ronnie rodeo.
And it should be clear to most human beings that the American dream which has always been based for expanding rights acknowledged for an expanding number of people is being taken away.
The secret of our success is being destroyed.
And far from making America great again, those currently in positions of power are attempting to make America a colony again and most of its people slaves again.
If Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin were alive today they'd say it's time for revolution.
Because a government which does not secure the unalienable rights of human beings – among which are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness has no right to exist.
Fortunately that same generation of wise political leaders who brought us the Declaration of Independence also created the Constitution of the United States.
And it is still possible to Revolutionarily change our government within that Constitution. But we the people of the United States need to do it. And we need to do it now.
Or pretty soon, all our human rights, including life, liberty and especially the pursuit of happiness are going to be taken away by the same government which is supposed to secure them for us and our posterity.
Government of the people by the lawyers and lobbyists, for the corporations and aristocracies must be replaced!
NOW!