I've posted before on the wonderful Hillsdale College publication, Imprimis. I've been hanging on to the most recent issue for a week or so now, because I wanted to share this beautiful quote.
Unlike most issues, October's was not a speech but an interview with the Hon. Clarence Thomas. Says he:
My job is to apply the Constitution. And here’s a useful lesson: You hear people talk all the time about the Bill of Rights. But you should always keep in mind that the Bill of Rights was an afterthought. That’s why it’s made up of what are called amendments. It was not in the original Constitution. The rights in the Bill of Rights were originally assumed as natural rights, and some people at the time thought that writing them into the Constitution was redundant. Read the Declaration of Independence. We should always start, when we read the Constitution, by reading the Declaration, because it gives us the reasons why the structure of the Constitution was designed the way it was. And with the Constitution, it was the structure of the government that was supposed to protect our liberty. And what has happened through the years is that the protections afforded by that structure have been dissipated. So my opinions are often about the undermining of those structural protections.
At any rate, the whole thing is worth a read and I encourage you to check it out, but I was most pleased that it sounds like Justice Thomas would be a supporter of the principles of balanced government.
3 comments:
Good post, Mike.
Balanced Government is the idea of ideas. There can be no doubt about that. It isn't a new idea by any stretch. It is the central governing concept upon which this nation was founded.
-Terry
Nice quote, Mike.
My son grows increasingly appalled at the attitudes of his friends,(14-17 year olds) who don't know what their rights are and don't seem to care.
They don't see communism as a bad thing, but, rather, as a legitmate form of government. They also don't see what the big difference is between a democracy and a federal republic.
I have been working with some younger children lately and I am somewhat appalled myself.
I have been talking to 1st-4th graders who believe that: "President Bush has ruined this country", but don't know what type of government we have and can't define the word "liberty". How is this going to play out as these children get older?
I'm not expecting 1st graders to have a huge vocabulary mind you, but if you're going to fill their heads with partisan political nonsense, shouldn't you at least give them some basic civics facts first? (The 4th graders now, I was disappointed that they couldn't give me a definition for "liberty".)
In any event, it certainly highlights the need for Balanced Government now. If balance is not restored, I fear it shall be a very long time before the world sees liberty the likes of which our country has squandered again.
Terry, thanks for the comments.
Mom, same goes for you, thanks. Your comments are fascinating to me, as someone who talks to his kids (ages 4 and nearly 3) already about the world outside of our town. Obviously, our schools are failing our kids. Yet, it would appear, so are parents (present company excluded). You and Terry both give me hope that if I keep doing the right things with my little ones that someday they'll grow up to be like your respective not-so-little ones.
-MT
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