I brought this up in an earlier post on my site, The Journeying Progressive, but no one has commented on it directly…didn’t Thomas Jefferson write that we were endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that “among these” are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
I am sure there is some scholarly research here that I have not found yet, but “among these” is certainly not a limiting clause. Jefferson did not say “we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and they are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That would be much different.
Human beings–a classification that includes ALL Americans–have more than just three “unalienable rights.” If we have the right to basic health care, which would seem only logical since without our health we would die (hence negating the first…second…and third of our unalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration), why does a Republican minority of Congress believe they can withold our natural, God-given rights?
Doesn’t this seem like a much more compelling argument to anyone?…help me out here!
10 comments