Burlington High school
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Mrs. Devra Parker
Follow the Rules or Live for Yourself. What Would You Do?
By: Allison Holman
12th Grade
In the first grade, we were all taught that everyone is equal. We were to have the same amount of crayons, sit boy-girl, boy-girl, and if one person has candy, everyone should have candy. As time went on, I’ve come to notice that school, now, is nothing but competition, which coincides with the role of personal responsibility in balancing individual liberty and the common good. Competition is individual liberty, and being equal in first grade is for the common good. Are we being taught to compete in school? Are we secretly trying to be better off than everyone else?
Most of the people today would rather have gold than earned respect. The same people say to screw the homeless because the way they live is their own fault. I would like to know how many people in a given day walk right past the bum on the street playing a bongo and trying to pick up a few bucks to live off of. The people that do this with a disgusted look on their faces are obviously only caring about individual liberty and the amount of money that they, themselves, earn. Some people read “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and take it as doing whatever it is to make them happy, forgetting the other pages of the Constitution that says we must love our neighbor.
No matter how much we try to avoid it, everyone is just as guilty of putting him/her first. It is merely a natural instinct. Sometimes we do it without even thinking, so should we feel bad about it? We should live according to the Constitution, which was written by our Founding Fathers on March 4, 1789. They were incredibly smart men who knew what they were talking about. They got our country rolling and we should abide by their ideas. When they wrote all men are created equal, they were not expecting that to change and did not write anything down about exceptions; such as, If he is homeless, than one may look down upon him, or He who has no money, shall have no friends. These words are not in the Constitution, nor are they implied powers and sometimes I think we forget that.
Americans should be pleased by how we can live. Most other countries barely have a form of government or are run as a communist nation. Communism was originally looked at as the “perfect” way to live. For example, Uganda boys cannot make their own choices. They are taking from homes everyday and forced to fight, which is like a draft we no longer have. Does that make our country better than theirs, or are we just making our individual people happy?
In communist countries, everyone does the same job, makes the same amount of money and lives in the same type of house. There is nothing better about anyone else. Is this the way to live? Looking at it this way prevents anyone from feeling lower to anyone else and eliminates competition all together; however, taking away individual rights also takes away individual life and that is not what America is about. Also, people would be made to think just like thy neighbor and believe the same things, thus eliminating any freedom of speech whatsoever. This violates my first amendment that I have here in the United States, and I am not okay with that being taken away from me. For example, I believe in God, but in a communist land, if the majority does not, I am forced to say goodbye to my faith and live by an opinion….
[The decisions we make are for the common good], whether [they] be personal or political, for ourselves or our posterity. The Constitution is our rule book to follow, but when do we draw the line? When is it okay to do things for ourselves instead of the people we live with? It is a matter of trust; but the question is, who do we trust: ourselves or everyone else? There have been blood, sweat and tears to make our government run smoothly and we must not ever [abuse] that. It is like a piece of art that we must cherish and live by in order to honor our past.
Maybe this conflict will never be solved. Maybe we should all go back to the first grade and learn the basics of common good. Everyone has the same amount of candy, and we say something nice or not say anything at all. Or, maybe we should continue to compete with each other and see what happens. We can find out if it turns to turmoil, or if it can help us balance our role in individual liberty and the common good of America.
Answers to Questions Regarding the Required Reading
Q1-What do you think Justin Reiter meant by including the following in his essay?
“…if the people are not accustomed to the freedom they will be angered by the inequality.” Were you angered by some of the things Justin said in his essay? Did you agree or disagree?
I can’t say I was angered by Justin’s opinions because it’s merely what he thinks is right. I do, however, think this statement is sort of two sided. Some people may be angered by what they are not accustomed to, but he is making it sound like that is okay. The people have to work together in this country and by getting angry, they can’t accomplish much. We must work around what we cannot fix. They way we interpret “equal” now may be different than how the framers interpreted it.
Q2- Explain: “He felt that the common good could be served by each individual pursuing self-interest.” To whom did Chris Carney attribute these feelings?
Chris Carney attributed these feelings to James Madison, father of the Constitution. I think he meant that if each person does what he feels is right, then he can get what he wants in return. If one works for what he wants by achieving “the common good,” he can receive what he has earned.
Q3- In the next to the last paragraph in her essay, Faith Doyle discuses Emperor Diocletian and his Edict of 301. Relate that to the essay topic.
Faith brought up this topic on the Romans because it is basically an example of how people should treat the word “inequality.” Reading her essay made me think about what might happen if our government was not as strong as it was today. Americans wouldn’t be free and we wouldn’t be a united country. I think life would be much worse because our rights wouldn’t be so profound and we would have more rules to follow.
Q4- Kelly Lanier says in her essay: “Even though everyone is born with the same rights here in America; sometimes a person can step on or take away the rights of another person.” Relate the example she gives and give us another one of your own.
I think when people know the amendments will back up their rights they take these rights a little too far. An example could be in a class discussion in History class when talking about God. It is anyone’s right to discuss and talk about what they believe. I am a firm believer in Jesus Christ, but still respect those who don’t have faith in Him. There are those who speak up and look down upon those who are atheist and step on their toes. This deals with Freedom of Speech, the first amendment.
Q5- Explain what Joshua Spencer means when he says that “individual liberty is a fragile, yet powerful, asset.” How does he relate individual liberty to dictators? Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not? Be specific.
I think Joshua meant that it is a privilege to have individual rights, but they can be easily taken away. We must not take for granted our rights as Americans because most countries don’t have what we do. I agree with what he says because it could be a wake-up call to most people to not step on toes, and remember that we are all equal.
Q6-Luck Hall asked “Will we maintain our freedom or destroy it to be safe?” How would you answer that question?
I think it would be best for our country to be safe, but still have individual rights that make our country great and free. If worst comes to worst I think we could give up some of our rights in order to maintain a safe country and assure that no body gets ahead of anyone else.
Q7- Some people, according to which student essayist in 1999, suggested that “the Constitution's framers might have 'put greater emphasis on the protection of the community over individual liberty', had they seen the world today.”? She doesn’t agree. Do You?
This essay was written by Molly McGlone from Rockridge High School. I do not agree with that statement because I think the framers cared just as much about individual rights as they did community protection. The whole constitution consists of more people rights than anything, but in return, these rights help us to create an outstanding community. I still believe that rights come first, but both are high important in the success of our government.