215th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights

This past Friday, December 15, was the 215th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. This should be a cause for celebration, but instead, it passed without the barest mentioning in hardly any newspaper or television program. Why? Because the Bill of Rights is no longer important to most people. Most Americans, of any stripe, cannot tell you what the Bill of Rights is, let alone what "rights" it is supposed to protect. Who cares? After all, the government will take care of us. Right?

There may not have even been a bill of rights, had it not been for the incessant hard work of some dedicated, freedom-loving Americans. Those that worked the hardest to secure the establishment and passage of a bill of rights were Christians, many of whom were Baptists. Religious freedom and the freedom to keep and use weapons were extremely important to these people. They had risked their lives to secure independence to have these freedoms, and were not about to lay them aside just because they were told by a Congress that everything was "OK".

Each of the rights protected in the Bill of Rights helped protect and preserve the other rights. Should one be cast aside, the others soon would follow. The right to own guns could not be preserved without the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech could not, in turn, be preserved without the right to own guns.

The newly independent citizens understood this interlocking system, and liked it that way. Several states had refused to join the union of independent States unless a bill of rights were approved. Most of the states had themselves approved various "declarations of rights", but if they were to join a "union" of States, then a broader protection system must be established in order to keep them safe from the potential of a overreaching central government.

215 years later, one must wonder: how much longer will the Bill of Rights be around? Will it survive another 215 years? That is doubtful. Even more so, will the Bill of Rights survive another 21.5 years? Things are moving fast in the wrong direction. If the Bill of Rights is to continue protecting us, then Americans must stand up for those rights. An ever-expanding Federal government promises to eat away at every bit of liberty and freedom unless it is checked. Freedom is dying from a cancer of apathy, and most Americans have no idea. There is a cure, and that cure is called action. Get active, or face the dire consequences.

Editor/RP