Earn this Freedom
(I wrote this in May of 2020 during the pandemic and briefly posted it on my author blog, kylepratt.me. However, it didn’t fit the tone of the other posts, so I took it down. After the launch of The Conservative Alternative I looked at it again and felt that after some minor updates and editing it would fit right in.)
During this pandemic lockdown, I occasionally drive my wife to the store. While she shops, I stay in the car, listen to the radio, and watch people. It sounds boring and it can be, but my immune system has been temporarily compromised by illness. So, I avoid contact, watch and listen.
On my most recent driving excursion, I heard the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, announce the relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions he had imposed upon business and the movement of citizens in the city. With that, he said, “let's continue to earn this freedom.”
As we drove home I ranted to no one in particular. However, my wife was the only other person in the car. She listened and nodded as I vented.
My discomfort with the mayor’s declaration stems from the implicit statement that freedom is earned. If freedom is earned then who do we earn it from? The only authority in this country that could grant freedom is a branch of government but, we as Americans have repeatedly fought against the idea that any level of government holds supreme political power or sovereignty. In the United States, citizens rule under the one and only sovereign authority. Sovereign is defined as possessing supreme or ultimate power.
The Hamilton sign near Napavine, Washington State
Some will point to the Constitution as the authority for rights. While the Constitution is the law for all the states of our nation, in Article VI the document recognizes treaties as the supreme law of the land. Through the amendment process, a supermajority of Congress or the states can change or abolish any provision of the Constitution. So, because treaties are superior to it and citizens can change or abolish it, the Constitution is not sovereign.
In the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ….”
So, to put that idea in modern, less formal, phrasing, rights derive from a sovereign God, flow to all people, and the people delegate limited authority to the government so they can protect those rights. It’s both profound and that simple.
At this point, we passed the billboard shown here, and I knew I would be writing about the topic.
Under the American system, Eric Garcetti was elected neither to grant nor take away freedom, but only to administer and protect it. I can almost hear someone say, “But during this time of COVID-19, Garcetti and many other politicians have taken away freedoms and now they are giving it back.”
If a burglar breaks in and takes your television do you lose ownership of the device? No, of course not. You lose possession of it, not ownership. However, the governors of many states seem to believe they own the Bill of Rights. They do not. They have taken what they do not own and are no better than a thief in the night.
Do you believe that God grants rights to His people? If no, where do rights originate? Share your thoughts on the rights of citizens in the comment section below.
