Rights and Responsibilities

[R_penguin]

This post is not for my fellow political activists, nor is it for all those who currently support or endorse our rights and freedoms.  For such patriots I would only be "singing to the choir."  This is for those who might still be on the fence or have not yet taken that plunge into the realm of understanding that freedom is not free.  A common phrase is that:  Freedom is not Free.  What does it mean?  Simply put, and in my very humble opinion (for I am no scholar), Freedom of any kind is a coin.  On one side of the coin are our Rights and on the other are our Responsibilities.

 One cannot be without the other, the other does not exist without the one.  Example:  we have the right to free speech and that requires the responsibility to refrain from messages of hate or violence, intolerance, lies, slander, etc.  Given time, failure to act responsible in this reguard would lead to cencorship and control and thus the "Right" would be lost to lack of "Responsibility."

It works the other way too. Say we engage in safe gun practices, we educate our youth, fight political fronts, and do everrything we do to defend our 2nd ammendment.  Why then our responsibilitys have been payed and we have EARNED the right to keep and bear arms...

[mosbear]

Ding, Ding, Ding!
Troll alert! DNFTT

[MikeBjerum]

Ding, Ding, Ding!
Troll alert! DNFTT

Blood trickling down chin as I bite tounge typing fingers very very hard 

[Pathfinder]

This post is not for my fellow political activists, nor is it for all those who currently support or endorse our rights and freedoms.  For such patriots I would only be "singing to the choir."  This is for those who might still be on the fence or have not yet taken that plunge into the realm of understanding that freedom is not free.  A common phrase is that:  Freedom is not Free.  What does it mean?  Simply put, and in my very humble opinion (for I am no scholar), Freedom of any kind is a coin.  On one side of the coin are our Rights and on the other are our Responsibilities.

 One cannot be without the other, the other does not exist without the one.  Example:  we have the right to free speech and that requires the responsibility to refrain from messages of hate or violence, intolerance, lies, slander, etc.  Given time, failure to act responsible in this reguard would lead to cencorship and control and thus the "Right" would be lost to lack of "Responsibility."

It works the other way too. Say we engage in safe gun practices, we educate our youth, fight political fronts, and do everrything we do to defend our 2nd ammendment.  Why then our responsibilitys have been payed and we have EARNED the right to keep and bear arms...

Hey, site pest! Penguin, rights are rights, they are not earned, they exist regardless of any "earning" you think we have to do. Go back and read (not re-read) the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution. Then come back and modify your post appropriately.

Better yet, here's a better use of your time and money. Hire a de-programmer to rid yourself of the blatantly un-American brainwashing you have obviously suffered through the public schools.

[runstowin]

Why then our responsibilitys have been payed and we have EARNED the right to keep and bear arms...

R_penguin, you have earned the right to be pilloried.

Pillory: pil·lo·ry  (pl-r)
n. pl. pil·lo·ries
A wooden framework on a post, with holes for the head and hands, in which offenders were formerly locked to be exposed to public scorn as punishment.

You have the ugly mug, I have the rotten tomatoes.

[Sponsor]

[PoorSoulInJersey]

Perhaps he meant that if we want to keep our rights, then we have the responsibility to stand up for them when someone tries to trample them?

[walangkatapat]

Perhaps he meant that if we want to keep our rights, then we have the responsibility to stand up for them when someone tries to trample them?

Example:  we have the right to free speech and that requires the responsibility to refrain from messages of hate or violence, intolerance, lies, slander, etc.  Given time, failure to act responsible in this reguard would lead to cencorship and control and thus the "Right" would be lost to lack of "Responsibility."

It works the other way too. Say we engage in safe gun practices, we educate our youth, fight political fronts, and do everrything we do to defend our 2nd ammendment.  Why then our responsibilitys have been payed and we have EARNED the right to keep and bear arms...

Part of it.

[tombogan03884]

Change it to" proven we deserve the rights passed down to us" and I will go along with it.
As for you guy's saying he's a troll I'll make this comment. One of the few things I remember about math class is that to prove or disprove an equation you do it backwards, and if you follow his logic in reverse it works, If we DO NOT fight for our civil rights, DO NOT responsibly exercise them, DO NOT educate, then we ARE NOT worthy of the rights passed down to us. Where his thought fails is in the assumption that "Rights" CAN be GIVEN, rights are OURS, We are endowed with these rights by our CREATOR, not by man, or court or legislature. The only thing MEN can do with a "Right" is exercise it, or allow it to be taken away.
 THE 2nd Amendment, is the ULTIMATE in "use it or lose it" because if we lose that we lose the means to enforce any other section of the Constitution.

[twyacht]

"Remember that Jefferson told us that the Second Amendment would not be needed until they tried to abolish it. There are people who have that in mind right now. The personal ownership and usage of firearms is not a common aspect of today's culture worldwide. It is up to Americans - those who know what it means to be an American - to uphold the light of liberty in the face of those both here and elsewhere who would extinguish it. We see the hysterics who feel that the abolition of firearms would bring about major changes in the human psyche, and that crime would disappear. We cannot reason with these people because they are impervious to reason, but we can expose them to ridicule and frustrate their political clout. That is a job not just for the National Rifle Association, but for everyone. If you want to make a resolution for the coming century, resolve to do something in defense of liberty every day, and by liberty, of course, we mean true liberty - the right to keep and bear arms. Without that liberty all other liberties are meaningless."
Col. Jeff Cooper

Hey Penguin,, the 2nd Amend. has NO gray area!

[Pathfinder]

Change it to" proven we deserve the rights passed down to us" and I will go along with it.
As for you guy's saying he's a troll I'll make this comment. One of the few things I remember about math class is that to prove or disprove an equation you do it backwards, and if you follow his logic in reverse it works, If we DO NOT fight for our civil rights, DO NOT responsibly exercise them, DO NOT educate, then we ARE NOT worthy of the rights passed down to us. Where his thought fails is in the assumption that "Rights" CAN be GIVEN, rights are OURS, We are endowed with these rights by our CREATOR, not by man, or court or legislature. The only thing MEN can do with a "Right" is exercise it, or allow it to be taken away.
 THE 2nd Amendment, is the ULTIMATE in "use it or lose it" because if we lose that we lose the means to enforce any other section of the Constitution.

Tom, very good points. I actually agreed with him through the first paragraph, rights do come with responsibilities - a point many of us have made elsewhere on this Forum. I went back and modified my original post slightly.

However, I did leave in the part about his needed de-programming, however. His comments about the 1st Amendment requiring us to "refrain" from hate speech and the 2nd Amendment requiring us to do good things before we "earn" the right to keep and bear arms are telling. I cannot agree with either of these.