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I am thinking of responding back but haven't done so yet. My answers are labeled under each idiot Article.
NEW PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION
Somebody said this was probably the best e-mail he'd seen in a long, long time. The following has been attributed to State Rep Mitchell Aye from Georgia. This guy should run for President one day...
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
My answer: Who ever claimed they had the right to all this stuff? The problem is over stated.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
My answer: Of course but everyone should work toward being kind, respectful and sensitive to other peoples feelings and beliefs. For instance, is it OK for Michael Richards to verbally abuse Black people???
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
My answer: If you stuck a screwdriver in your eye, you would not have much of a case.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. (This one is my pet peeve...get an education and go to work....don't expect everyone else to take care of you!)
My answer: The biggest problem in the country is welfare for the wealthy. CEO's making 400 times what the average worker makes and guys like Ken Lay steeling from average folks. The middle class is growing smaller and smaller and the wealthy are finding more and more tax loop holes. Thats why you didn't see Jesus hanging out with the rich and powerful. He stood up for the common man.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
My Answer:
Any health care is going to have a cost but what is the best value for everyone? The United States is falling behind most of the other industrialized nations when it comes to the health of our population. We even come in behind Cuba for infant mortality. The problem is when poor people can't afford health care, they put off going to the doctor and little problem turns into a big problem and they often end up dying. Guess who gets stuck with the HUGE bill when they are rushed to the hospital? You and I.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
My answer: Is there really a problem here? Isn't that the way the law already works?
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
My answer: Again, the current system already covers this???
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
(AMEN!) (AMEN, AGAIN)
My Answer: Again, the current system already works this way. Who ever claimed someone had the right to a job????
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
My Answer: There is nothing wrong with trying to make life easier for everyone.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from! (lastly....)
My Answer: I would use a different tone here but I agree people should try to learn English. It's not something I lose too much sleep over though. Who cares?
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!!
My Answer: No it wasn't. The constitution is neutral when it comes to religion that is why God is not mentioned any place in the constitution. The founders had a variety of religious beliefs and Thomas Jefferson even re-wrote the Bible and took out all the miracles because he believed in the laws of nature which he believed God may or may not have installed. Our constitution is founded on freedom of religion, the pursuit of knowledge, the bill or rights, human reason and free debate, period. Jesus doesn't play a roll. The founders were also not too big on miracles. If you read the Declaration of Independence you will notice the term "God and Natures God" This is a deistic term referring to the laws of nature. Gravity, electricity, etc. etc. They felt the best way to know God was to observe his/her creation and how it worked.
Jefferson's Syllabus of an Estimate of the
Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus,
Compared with Those of Others.
In a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Jefferson described his views on Jesus and the Christian religion, as well as his own religious beliefs. He appended to this description a Syllabus that compared the teachings of Jesus to those of the earlier Greek and Roman philosophers, and to the religion of the Jews of Jesus' time. This letter and the appended Syllabus are interesting to anyone studying the Jefferson Bible because they explain precisely Jefferson's views which later led him to make the compilation of the moral philosophy of Jesus in the form presented on this website. Both the letter and the Syllabus are presented below, and may be found in the Memorial Edition of Jefferson's Writings, Vol. 10, pg. 379. Following the syllabus is a letter to William Short, which contains further discussion of the syllabus. This letter is found in Vol. 11 of the Memorial Edition, pg. 243.
Letter To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
Washington, April 21, 1803.
DEAR SIR,
In some of the delightful conversations with you in the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you that one day or other I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others, ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other. At the short interval since these conversations, when I could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, the subject has been under my contemplation. But the more I considered it, the more it expanded beyond the measure of either my time or information. In the moment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from Dr. Priestley his little treatise of "Socrates and Jesus Compared." This being a section of the general view I had taken of the field, it became a subject of reflection while on the road and unoccupied otherwise. The result was, to arrange in my mind a syllabus or outline of such an estimate of the comparative merits of Christianity as I wished to see executed by someone of more leisure and information for the task than myself. This I now send you as the only discharge of my promise I can probably ever execute. And in confiding it to you, I know it will not be exposed to the malignant perversions of those who make every word from me a text for new misrepresentations and calumnies. I am moreover averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public, because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith which the laws have left between God and himself. Accept my affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson
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