Ten Days Before Christmas--Some Thoughts on Freedom

Today should be celebrated as freedom day. Today, for the thrid time in 18 months and two years after the capture of a brutal dictator, now on trial, the Iraqi people take to the polls to select a full-term parliament. Today is a day to celebrate all that is great about democracy--particularly in America.

Why you may ask? Today is the 214th Anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. For those on the Left, that is the Frist Ten Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Framers made a mistake in not including them in the origianl Constitution, so what did they do, they fixed their mistake. They used the very system they created to correct an oversight. What brilliance, what genius is this?

Today, however, the assualt on our Bill of Rights continues:

• Everyday, we have more and more restrictions placed on our freedom of speech. On college campuses, students endure speech codes. "Reformers" aim to place restrictions on what and how much we can say about politics and candidates.


• The concept of religion and spirituality is being systematically removed from our national psyche--because the ACLU says religion in public is bad.


• We cannot abide recitation of Christian holidays because we might offend a Jew or Muslim, but we can say Happy Hannukuh--because celebration of a minority faith is good, but celebration of majority faith is oppressive.


• Kids can't say prayers in school because, well then it looks like schools are endorsing religion.


• Gun ownership by law abiding citizens is becoming illegal because we can't have law abiding citizens defending themselves against gun-toting criminals.


• We have witnesses assaults on private ownership of property carried out in the name of economic development.


• In the name of national security, we have spying by our government on our library reading.

The Bill of Rights represents the best of our aspirations to limit governmental involvement in our personal lives. But as this country has progressed in the march through time, we have forgotten about the basic privileges our Framers fought and died to provide us. We have abandoned our principles of individual freedom and liberty in our country at a time when we seek to expand those same freedoms overseas.

We pride ourselves on being a nation of laws, not men. But we have failed to adhere to the most basic of laws in this country--the Constitution. On this, the 214th Anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, we should reflect on our freedoms, or lack thereof, while we celebrate the freedom of a new democracy.