What rights do you consider inalienable?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
freedom of peaceful assembly.
Any freedom must start with speech…and that is peaceful speech. Speech to incite violence is not free to those it seeks to oppress.
(Just kidding, tracy!)
and sometimes my husband looks in the closet and says, “Lord woman, I think your shoes need some birth control!” To which I shriek maniacly, “In your dreams G.I. Joe boy! The shoes in this closet will multiply and be fruitful!”
to throw off government that fails to uphold basic rights and/or follow the law.
good with the ones enshrined in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. I would also add some weight to the concept of due process, regardless of how ‘quaint’ the government string-pullers consider the Geneva Conventions.
Free speech, freedom of assembly/association and the right to choose my tyrant.
the right to make my own damn health decisions, or in the event of debilitating disability to have my beloved spouse make them, without interference from Church or State. That includes but is not limited to reproductive decisions or end of life decisions.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the three mentioned at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence… Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Especially that last….
Just think about it. The Declaration of Independence states right out that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right.
Happiness being, as I see it, the Liberty to make personal decisions for one’s own Life. And if that’s not a right that covers both reproductive choice and marriage to the partner of one’s choosing regardless of gender, I don’t know what is.
So long as it harms no one else… what the HELL is wrong with an individual having the Liberty to make personal choices, for his or her own reasons, that allow them to Pursue Happiness in their own Life?
Pursuit of Happiness can mean access to and opportunity for education. Certainly access to healthcare. The ability to speak one’s mind, meet with friends, breathe clean air and drink clean water, have decent food to eat and sufficient shelter over one’s head, a job if one is capable of working, and sufficent support to have a life worth living if one cannot. To raise a family… or not. And the right to have a say in the government–to vote and have that vote counted, to have a government that serves rather than one that demands, one that protects one’s rights rather than restrict them. The right to worship — or not. The right to be treated with respect as a fellow human being, regardless of one’s age, ethnic origin, level of education or income, ability to “produce” (or for that matter, reproduce), religious faith or lack thereof, gender, sexual orientation, or state of health (I’m sure I left something out of that list, but you probably know what I mean).
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Sounds good to me.
I’m suprised it hasn’t been mentioned already. The cornerstone of all rights is the freedom to think new ideas.
I was thinking about the freedom from conservative, oppressive religious doctrine, but your “freedom of thought” issue is really what I am thinking about. Now maybe this indoctrinated, religious blind following has stopped some social pathology from manifesting itself in some individuals over the ages, but I also wonder how much social and scientific progress has been stiffled by fundamentalist religious pressures, as well as how much suffering has been directly casued by such blindness!
The right to travel, and the right to work.
Virtually all of U.S. immigration law is illegitimate.