Protecting our Individual Rights essays

Protecting our Individual Rights essays Individual rights are one of the cornerstones this country is based upon. In fact, individual rights are the foundation of any democracy, and certainly separate us from the misery of dictatorship, communism, and autocracy. However, while many citizens take individual rights for granted in our society, there are others who are intent on reducing individual rights in the name of "equality" and safety. Our individual rights are in jeopardy from a variety of sources, and protecting them, while still protecting society as a whole, should be foremost in the minds of all Individual rights are not a new notion. They were foremost in the minds of our forefathers who forged a new nation. Three Constitutional experts note, "As early as 1646 there arose in Massachusetts the demand for the 'enjoyment of our lives, libertys and estates, according to our due and natural rights, as freeborne subjects of the English nation'" (Barlow, Levy, and Masugi 169). This unquenchable need for freedom came from eras of oppression and tyranny in Great Britain, where only the uppermost echelons of society and business enjoyed the most prestige and privilege. Newly settled Americans hoped to forge a land where there were no class distinctions, and everyone could enjoy the same privileges and liberties. In fact, we constitutionalized these rights, which in effect meant the legislature could not simply legislate individual rights, they were guaranteed by the Constitution, and would need state approval to alter individual rights. These laws are also referred to as fundamental law, higher law, or paramount law (Barlow, Levy, and Masugi 170). Thus, law guarantees our individual rights, and as such, we sometimes take them Individual rights encompass many facets often overlooked in the struggle for individualism versus the good of the whole. Included in the basic rights we enjoy are the right to...