What Rights? - Opinions
I met an interesting man last week at the restaurant where I work. Of course, when you spend your summer waitressing in a small Southern town, there is no limit to the "interesting" people you might meet. But this man was interesting in a "breath of fresh air" kind of way.
He was in his 40s or 50s, sitting alone, and seemed very eager to talk. Being such a slow day, I decided to stop and chat with him for a while. As it turns out, he's a history professor from Georgia who was just coming through town on business. Upon finding out I was a political science major, the topic naturally turned to politics. I was somewhat relieved to learn that this random history professor was a Republican, since liberals tend to be bad tippers.
He seemed just as relieved to find that there were indeed conservative college students such as myself at public universities. I told him about the trouble I've had with certain professors who don't appreciate my alternative stance on some classroom discussions. He said it was something that he had seen many times before. "Some people confuse their 'rights' with things that really aren't their rights at all. Many professors think they have the right to curtail their students' freedom of speech. But that's completely wrong. You have the right to say whatever you want in that classroom. They do not have the right to infringe upon your rights." He then went on to preach about how political correctness has spawned a whole new generation of people who claim their "rights" are being restricted, when really those rights never even existed.
He told me it was something I should do a column on, and I politely told him I might. Then, a strange thing happened. Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that local governments ultimately have the power to seize property from individuals for private land development that may prompt economic growth. And as I'm sitting here, wondering whatever happened to property rights, I'm taken back to the conversation with the Georgia professor. Do we really have a right to property? Or is it just something we made up because we thought we lived in the land of the free?
This fight isn't anything new. Decades ago, my great-grandparents were forced to give up their farm in Wayne County, NC, for the construction of a new four-lane highway that was supposed to go right through the farm. The highway was never built. To this day, that farmhouse still stands there, and has even been re-inhabited. My great-grandparents gave up everything they had worked so hard to acquire for a highway that would never even exist.
But the fact that this has been going on for years now doesn't make it any less shocking. The Supreme Court has actually come out and said that mall contractors have more right to land than the people who have been living there their entire lives. Hello Wal-Mart, goodbye property rights.
Another federal decision this week made me stop and listen in awe. Congress is well on its way to passing an amendment that would outlaw flag burning. Now, this is not something that I'm worried about for personal reasons. I could not fathom ever wanting to burn an American flag, and I will admit that it makes me sick to my stomach when I see people doing such a thing. The irony of such an act has always confused me: you protest our government by burning a flag, yet you have the freedom to protest by burning a flag. It is my guess that most flag-burners have taken that freedom for granted. But regardless of how I feel about it, I don't think I have the right to say what a person can or cannot do with their own flag.
By passing a constitutional amendment that bans flag-burning, we are taking away one's right to express themselves and placing restrictions on it. Today, you can't burn the American flag. What's next? No open criticism of the government whatsoever? Limited freedom of press? Who knows, maybe within a few years this column will be outlawed for daring to question the government's decision.
I've always been so proud of my rights as an American. I love having a political argument with someone and being able to remind them that they should consider themselves lucky to live in a nation that allows them to speak out against a president they hate. But when the Supreme Court chooses Big Business over individual rights and Congress slowly begins to restrict how we are able to express ourselves, I have to be concerned. Now is the time to enjoy your freedoms and your rights - while you still have them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
