Generation Wii

Have you read the We Declaration?

I get that kids today are concerned about their future. I was told all through school not to expect Social Security to be around when I grow up. Communism and acid rain were big concerns. I remember laying in bed thinking that I would see the mushroom cloud over Portland right before I was vaporized (Thank you "The Day After"!)

Some of the concerns outlined in the We Declaration are valid. Others I feel are based on a view of our country that is too far from what our founding fathers had in mind. So I will give my opinion on what seem like the most spurious points of the declaration.

First:

"The United States was formed to protect the interests of all citizens, including its young people. Our Constitution mandates liberties, rights, duties, and protects the people from oppression"

True and false. This seems like a case of using a statement of truth to bolster the false argument that follows. I don't think this was done intentionally. I truly believe that these people have not actually read the Constitution. How can they have? I have and I don't recognize any of the things listed.

The Constitution of the United States is not an exciting read. It's rather dry and boring, full of descriptions of the basic functions of the federal government. Aside from the preamble it doesn't even put its lips to the trumpet of freedom. It's more like, hey, you guys do this, you guys do that and you guys do this other thing. Done.

Certainly the ideas and concepts behind the writing of the Constitution had everything to do with liberties, rights, duties and protection from oppression. In fact, it was concern about these very things that prompted the Bill of Rights (aka Amendments I through X). The language of these amendments gives a clear indication of the purpose of the Constitution. Phrases such as "Congress shall make no law" and "...shall not be infringed" speak to restriction, not permission. That is, the Bill of Rights is more so a list of rights of out all the rights we have that the federal government cannot affect. Then comes the clincher, Amendment X:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

To me that says the Constitution is not a document of what rights we have. We have all rights and amendments I through IX clarify some of them. We don't obtain our liberty and rights from the Constitution. They are unalienable rights, per the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Note that life does not equal health, or a guarantee of health. More on this later.