Minority Viewpoint Losing It, p.5
Dublin Core
Title
Minority Viewpoint Losing It, p.5
Description
"As we celebrate the bicentennial of our constitution, we should ask whether we’re living out its principles. The function of any constitution is to establish the role of government. China and South Africa have constitution’s, yet their people aren’t free.
A constitution must limit government in order for people to be free. Our Constitution seeks to limit government’s powers by the Bill of Rights which contain phrases like: “Congress shall make no laws… No person shall be held to answer… Nor shall be compelled… Nor be deprived…”
These limitations on government, a blessing to freedom-loving people, are a deposits nightmare.
But the principles of governments are being subverted by the very people most likely to pontificate on the Constitution during their 4th of July in speeches- congressman and judges.
As hypocrisy and irony would have it, the national Bicentennial celebrations are head up by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger.
During his term, Burger used the court as legislature with little appreciation of his earlier distinguished colleague Chief Justice John Marshalls admonition, “Courts are instruments of the law and can will nothing”
Whenever Congress or the Supreme Court is in session our freedoms are in jeopardy. If Congress and the court tried an outright repeal of the Constitution, there be a national revolt. But seizing upon ignorance and vested interest, our Constriction is being repealed by stealth.
The Tenth Amendment says those powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States are reserved to the States are reserved to the states and the people. Today, the Tenth Amendment has virtually no meaning.
There are very few states activates not controlled, in one way or the another, by some federal agency. This includes schools, libraries, roads, and hospitals. There is nothing in the Constitution delegating such authority to the feds.
The Farmers saw a republican form of governments as one of the best means of limiting the power of the central government.
Similarly, the Ninth Amendment is virtually meaningless today. The Ninth Amendment says, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Ask a college student: what's contained in the Ninth Amendment? You’ll get an empty stare, you’ll get legalese B.S.
Feeling that the complete range of human freedoms could never be exhaustively enumerated, Alexander Hamilton disagreed with inserting a Bill of Rights into the Constitution. He feared that any enumeration of specific freedoms, as in our Bill of Rights, could be used to suggest that freedoms not listed were not protected.
To meet this danger, the Ninth Amendment was adopted. Most federal government regulations of our everyday life would not survive strict Ninth Amendment scrutiny.
Despite these and other subversions of the Constitution, Americans remain the freest people on earth. Whether we can make the same boast on the Tricentennial is another matter.
We are losing our freedoms, and the only reason we don’t notice is we had so much, to begin with, and it's being taken a little at a time.
Can we reverse the trend? Yes, but we have to understand our constitutional protections and teach them to our kids while not forgetting our personal responsibilities. "
A constitution must limit government in order for people to be free. Our Constitution seeks to limit government’s powers by the Bill of Rights which contain phrases like: “Congress shall make no laws… No person shall be held to answer… Nor shall be compelled… Nor be deprived…”
These limitations on government, a blessing to freedom-loving people, are a deposits nightmare.
But the principles of governments are being subverted by the very people most likely to pontificate on the Constitution during their 4th of July in speeches- congressman and judges.
As hypocrisy and irony would have it, the national Bicentennial celebrations are head up by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger.
During his term, Burger used the court as legislature with little appreciation of his earlier distinguished colleague Chief Justice John Marshalls admonition, “Courts are instruments of the law and can will nothing”
Whenever Congress or the Supreme Court is in session our freedoms are in jeopardy. If Congress and the court tried an outright repeal of the Constitution, there be a national revolt. But seizing upon ignorance and vested interest, our Constriction is being repealed by stealth.
The Tenth Amendment says those powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States are reserved to the States are reserved to the states and the people. Today, the Tenth Amendment has virtually no meaning.
There are very few states activates not controlled, in one way or the another, by some federal agency. This includes schools, libraries, roads, and hospitals. There is nothing in the Constitution delegating such authority to the feds.
The Farmers saw a republican form of governments as one of the best means of limiting the power of the central government.
Similarly, the Ninth Amendment is virtually meaningless today. The Ninth Amendment says, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Ask a college student: what's contained in the Ninth Amendment? You’ll get an empty stare, you’ll get legalese B.S.
Feeling that the complete range of human freedoms could never be exhaustively enumerated, Alexander Hamilton disagreed with inserting a Bill of Rights into the Constitution. He feared that any enumeration of specific freedoms, as in our Bill of Rights, could be used to suggest that freedoms not listed were not protected.
To meet this danger, the Ninth Amendment was adopted. Most federal government regulations of our everyday life would not survive strict Ninth Amendment scrutiny.
Despite these and other subversions of the Constitution, Americans remain the freest people on earth. Whether we can make the same boast on the Tricentennial is another matter.
We are losing our freedoms, and the only reason we don’t notice is we had so much, to begin with, and it's being taken a little at a time.
Can we reverse the trend? Yes, but we have to understand our constitutional protections and teach them to our kids while not forgetting our personal responsibilities. "
Creator
Walter E. Williams
Publisher
Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)
Date
1987-4-11
Collection
Citation
Walter E. Williams, “Minority Viewpoint Losing It, p.5,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 29, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/275.