Burlington High School

Burlington, Kansas

Teacher: Mrs. Parker

 

Indispensable Rights

By William Stevens

12^th grade

 

If America was to give away all the civil liberties that its citizens were guaranteed and replace the government with a communist regime would the American citizens be safer? No. Crime, corruption, and injustice are not reduced because someone says you can’t be free anymore and you having to live a forced lifestyle. Greedy people may still steal, [people] may still kill [their] partners for cheating on [them], and scandals may still be created by executives searching for power and wealth. Proverbs and fables are not told because human society is perfect; they are told because human society is imperfect and [words] of wisdom are to help guide imperfect people. The dog that saw his reflection in a pond thought he saw another dog carrying a bigger bone then he and tried to grab the other dogs bone because the story teller was referring to human greed, and the dog lost his bone because the story teller was referring to an…outcome of greed….If guidelines [for living] were set for [citizens]…those guidelines would constantly be broken [due to] human nature.

 

Right now we can do just about anything we want as long as it is not damaging to other people. That does not mean that our liberties hurt communities, states, or the nation we live in. Our liberties do mean that individuals will be more likely to disagree with each other and despise one another whether [over] political opinions or personal differences. Karl Marx believed in the endless struggle between classes and wanted to abolish such systems from government. What he didn’t know was that the struggle is necessary. Big business owners and [unions] are what keep a civilization together without totalitarian control….

 

In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, society is controlled in a so-called perfect state. Everyone rotates through the many jobs within the community, everyone sees in black in white, everyone wears the same clothes, families are assigned to you, and everyone has a completely equal share at prosperity.…Humans have [different] emotions….There is greed, aspiration, laziness, hate, love, and countless others that have a major impact upon humans and their decisions.…Some [would] rebel against an ordered system, some would care only for themselves, [and others would] give their entire lives working for others, and choose their [own] version of right and wrong. Communism is a malfunctioning system that can easily be destroyed by the very thing it tries to help: the people. That is why there is no perfect society today, why communistic nations rule with an Iron Fist. Those nations must stop the destructive force that is their own people from [instituting] anarchy.

 

For communists, the natural feeling of individuality is their worst enemy, but for a democratic nation, that inner power is not destructive, it is constructive. Citizens of democratic countries are encouraged to do what they want and…human nature is [not completely stifled] and the common good [blossoms] to [some] extent. Not every free person is out for themselves; in fact, most are not. It is human [to express] love—[humans] love their families, friends, lovers, communities and nations. Therefore it is only natural for many humans to want to work for the common good of their own free will. [People] who have more money than [they need]  will many times donate some of the money to those in need. Victims of Hurricane Katrina received lots of donations from [generous] Americans.

 

Everyday as you watch the television, listen to the radio, and go to work, you find people…who take what they have for granted. Most Americans do not realize how happy they [should be] to be free to have their modest, hateful, concerned, intelligent, or mindless opinions, thoughts, and voices, legally guaranteed [expression]…. If such freedoms are not valuable then why did China [subdue] its own citizens at Tiananmen Square in 1989 for having peaceful protests against the government? [Communist] nations that have attempted to place the common good [above] everything else have shown [that system] fails.

 

Societies that place equality or the common good [above freedom] have [suffered] harsh consequences for doing so. Societies that put individual liberty and equality of rights before any kind of common good find that their economy will sustain itself. Democracies also fulfill the common good by balancing the power between business executives and their workers and by donations given willingly by the nation’s citizens. The rights guaranteed to us by the United States Constitution are the most precious we have; it protects [our] natural rights, and gives us [the] power to [control] our government. No communist country can say the same.

 

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?

 

A1- I think that Justin Reiter was trying to add to his statement of class struggles by saying that the lower class will always try and strive to equal themselves with the higher classes. I don’t believe that Justin is completely right on this subject because he is generalizing a population. People are poor for many reasons, some can’t help their situation and do strive to bring themselves out of poverty but not always by protest of equality. Many figure heads to day brought themselves from the lowest classes by becoming educated and working hard. Those who truly are angered by inequality may actually experience it. Racism is still around today and may be around one hundred years from now. My point is that there are many exceptions to the generalized statement that Justin proposes.

 

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?

 

A2- Chris Carney wrote about James Madison’s beliefs about the American people. Madison believed in everyone’s different inclinations to helping the groups and organizations that they were inherently a part of and their different inclinations to help themselves and those in their immediate surroundings.

 

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.

 

A3- Faith says in her final words we will surly go the way of Rome. Rome is where America borrowed most of its ideas from. Also the citizens of The Roman Empire were very much free and prosperous, and it is because we have evolved the laws of the Roman Empire into the pinnacle of natural rights that America is compared to Rome it self, and because of this America has become closer than any other country to Rome’s Pox Romana. I do believe that Pox Romana is essence of what the topic strives to obtain.

 

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.

 

A4- Kelly’s example is a grave example of human injustice, even though such tragedies cannot be stopped completely. It is our justice system that tries its best to mend and heal the wounds of such atrocities and halt the evils that hate breeds into a civilized society by just punishment and vindication. If a store owner was robbed by a shoplifter then a court could order the robber pay a fine to the owner in damages that would help heal the damage done. If an act of animosity created then a jail sentence may be in order and a behavioral class like anger management may also be necessary to prevent further incidents.

 

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.

 

A5- Joshua does raise a good point in a common method of creating a dictatorship, and it is true that this actually happens, however this explanation will only work in an uneducated, or poverty stricken society. If a nation is filled with educated individuals then they will not support a man who they know does not want what is best for the people rather than himself. So I do not agree with Joshua completely

 

Q6-Luck Hall asked “Will we maintain our freedom or destroy it to be safe?” How would you answer that question?

 

A6- I believe that Luke has a concept wrong, Laws and armed guardsmen do not stop anything, it changes then circumstances, and yes many times these changed circumstances do stop freedom but a person ultimately controls themselves, no matter how many influences are upon it. A school shooter in America would bring his gun to school, while a school shooter in North Korea would steal the guard’s gun to kill everyone and himself. Influences have a great impact on the choices a person makes but unless you are tied by chains you control yourself. Later in Joshua’s essay I agree with him, but early on I find his statements too broad about the two extremes of government that is anarchy and totalitarianism.

 

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?

A7- I believe that the framers put an emphasis over the community to give the rights that everyone have to being safe from other people, and that is all they intended to do. If you are safe from harm by your fellow citizens and are free to do as you please as long as you keep in mind as to not harm others then you are acting as the framers had planned. Part of that plan was to give every American an amount of responsibility that they must obey or receive punishment for endangering other Americans. This is the concept of civilization I believe that the framers had intended upon governing the people

 Of America.

 

Q8- “Just because a law may achieve desirable results, it should not take precedence over the Constitution.” Do you agree or disagree?  Aaron Traffas, discusses the Ban on Smoking in Public Places and the Gun Free School Zones Act.  How do you personally feel about these two issues?

 

A8- I do agree, even though a Law may be desirable to the population that desirable outcome may be wrong. In World War II the Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps even though they were American citizens, and at that time the population desired it because of hated to the country we were at war with. Today however we are remorseful because of our mistake. If we restrict the rights of a man who is addicted to cigarettes then we are punishing him because the population wants a smoke free nation but that man is being discriminated against. Still today we do not know exactly how harmful they are to people other than who smokes it, but none of those smokers smoke to hurt other people and may people who do smoke are very nice. Smoking I believe is a completely different subject to gun control. Guns are made to hurt and harm, by being a tool to carry out the ambitions of the holder. Banning guns completely is wrong but keeping something so potentially destructive to a population is ok because a gun is a object that can be left at home. Since guns give people such harmful capabilities regulations banning weapons with excessive force is reasonable.

 

Q9- Annie St. Romain referred to a book in her essay where “the government regulated every possible aspect of human life from profession to family to emotions.” What was the name of that book?  Have you read it?

 

A9- The book was the giver and yes I have read it. That book describes a society that is so controlled that they can only see in black and white, that they can only ride a bike at a certain age. That the man and woman that raise you are not you biological parents and neither are your siblings. In that book people are told who to love and who to raise. The book describes the most extreme amount of control over society possible and the Giver is the one who shows the main character the injustice of it all through the eyes of a free person locked away in shackles.

 

Q10- “As nations grow in size and social complexity, governments claim greater powers to restrain individuals and groups.  Those who criticize this development believe that it has gone so far as to threaten the existence of individual liberty.  Others believe that only if government is granted such powers, can complex problems be solved.” This quote can be found in Jessie Veit’s essay.  Which side of the issue do you support and why?

 

A10- There are vast oceans of gray areas in politics, and I believe that these areas are filled by the willingness of the people due to the circumstances of the times. IF America is at total peace then more freedoms should be in orders so that the population may enjoy it. In times of stress and war then a population would prefer a stronger government that could bring back peaceful times and stop wars.

 

Q11- Give three examples where personal responsibility would replace the need for laws. Do not duplicate those found in Patrick Karcher’s essay.

 

A11- Drinking laws are a good example because legal drinking requires the responsibility to not allow yourself to make poor decisions like drinking and driving while you have weakened and intoxicated yourself. Another good example would be to learn in school so that acts like no child left behind would not be necessary. Speed limit laws would be my last example because if everyone was responsible then drinkers wouldn’t drive drunk and persons who fell rather macho won’t racing each other down a highway.

 

Q12- It is obvious that Benji Lehman is idealistic.  In his essay he claims when the founding fathers “wrote the constitution they put a great emphasis on each person having personal rights as well as individual liberties. The true strength of each and every community falls on the individual. Believing each man, woman, and child will, and can recognize the importance of good responsibility.…These were laws that gave each and everyone of us the opportunity and self-respect to do the right thing.”  Benji believed that people would make choices that would serve and benefit their communities. Do you believe that? Please explain.

 

A12- No I do not agree with Benji. Only a part of the American Population will accept their personal responsibility. This part of the population may be a large part but that amount of people who choose not to care about their duty to others will harm their fellow citizens which is why we have our government, laws, and judicial system to try and mend the damage that these people do.
 

BACK