My right

 Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those are your rights! Government and other people will try to deny all three. That is the nature of the game, it's simply how it works. Those writing our founding documents said we needed to trust in divine providence. In the writing of the Declaration, before the session of September 7, 1774, Psalm 35 was read from the book of common prayer. It is an appeal to "god" divine providence as Franklin and others called that, for help. Even those that were called Deists, the enlightened ones, agreed with that appeal. They agreed that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is granted by God and God alone, an unalienable right. Man should do his best to ensure those rights for all men. To do so, governments are established. This requires the surrender of a portion of your natural rights but never a total surrender of those rights! 

  "James Madison explained in Federalist no. 51, in the state of nature, "the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger." In such a state, even the decent may be tempted to act according to their selfish passions rather than their reason and duty. As James Madison put it in the same number of The Federalist, men are not angels-that is, they are not simply rational. The state of nature is characterized not by life, liberty, and happiness, but rather by violent death, slavery, and misery. Because of this-and so that they can enjoy their rights in peace-people join to form governments." I take no credit for that passage it was written by another unidentified individual. 

 The purpose of government is not to remove those natural rights but rather to protect them. With all the talk of my rights I hear today it seems a great many people do not know what those rights actually are. Just because you want to do something that doesn't mean it is a right. There are many claiming that if the Constitution and the Bill of Rights do not prohibit an action that means you have a right to do it. That is patently false! The purpose of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is to secure our natural rights, those rights given to us by God. To protect those rights against those that would take them away, including the government itself!  Thomas Jefferson explained all that, his thinking and reasoning. The very reason he said, "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." 

 At this time the Supreme Court of the United States is going to issue their opinion on several fundamental pieces of legislation. The court just yesterday issued their opinion that schools with a religious component in their teachings may indeed receive state funding. It is not a violation of church and state. I concur with the justices on that. It is not an endorsement of a religion, it is support for the educational system, a system that every parent has a right to choose for their children. The big one pending a formal announcement is Roe V Wade. There is talk that it will be overturned. If so, that decision on abortion will revert to the individual states. That is its' proper place in our government. The reason is a simple one, no one has a right to kill someone else! The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all of that does not convey the right to life to another individual. That is an unalienable right! Remember the purpose of Government? It is to protect your natural rights, life being first on the list! 

 The constitution is often called a living document. That simply means it is open to interpretation. That's the job of the supreme court. It's also why they issue opinions; they do not make laws. Most of their opinions are based on what was thought before, that is to say by precedent. Of course, as time goes on thinking changes. When enough time passes the same thought will reappear. As a result, we will have conflicting precedents. Roe V Wade was not the first time abortion was discussed or an opinion issued. Somewhat like the issue of slavery the issue was passed to the states. We know that as the tenth amendment. Passed in 1789, politicians were passing the buck even then. With the issue of slavery we all know what happened. The whole "house divided" thing proved to be correct. Abortion, as a right, I believe falls into the same moral, ethical and emotional category. It's an all or nothing thing! As for my opinion, the right to life supersedes any right to "choice" by another individual, even my mother. That right was given to me by a much higher power.