The Declaration of Independence holds "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" are among certain unalienable rights that governments are instituted to secure. The Ninth Amendment specifically states the enumeration "of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." The people give the government limited powers, necessary to protect our rights. Yet politicians seem to think our rights are only those conceded by predecessors. To address the spread of poverty and panic over crime, they quibble over how to ration social spending, dilute already porous ecological and safety net protections, stuff more jails, get tougher, and whittle away the rights of the people, all in the name of law, order, national security, traditional family values, and growth.
The founding fathers left many loopholes, defining no rights for women, slaves, natives, workers, consumers, environmental quality, or information. Any restrictions on business takeovers of competitors or legislatures were ineffective. Over the years movements have forced Congress to attend to these loopholes, but the problems persist, though surfaces change. The Constitution, as revolutionary as it was, left people to the caprice of a market system with basic missing rights, checks, and balances. The Bill of Missing Rights attempts to remove the leeway making the original into a hollowing shell, reassuring words to remind people of the promise never realized.
Some may argue the promise was never intended for reality. That may be true, but the point is that democracy has the potential to make the promise real, if the rights of the people are clearly defined and respected by all organizations, for profit and not, public and private. This requires a change in practices by industry, government, and science, which have all demonstrated they do not necessarily deserve public trust, and should be brought under public oversight. There is no excuse for most of these episodes of corruption. National security must involve weapons of mass destruction, but since the end of the Cold War, applying it as a shield for other sensitive information is not justified.
The founding fathers left many loopholes, defining no rights for women, slaves, natives, workers, consumers, environmental quality, or information. Any restrictions on business takeovers of competitors or legislatures were ineffective. Over the years movements have forced Congress to attend to these loopholes, but the problems persist, though surfaces change. The Constitution, as revolutionary as it was, left people to the caprice of a market system with basic missing rights, checks, and balances. The Bill of Missing Rights attempts to remove the leeway making the original into a hollowing shell, reassuring words to remind people of the promise never realized.
Some may argue the promise was never intended for reality. That may be true, but the point is that democracy has the potential to make the promise real, if the rights of the people are clearly defined and respected by all organizations, for profit and not, public and private. This requires a change in practices by industry, government, and science, which have all demonstrated they do not necessarily deserve public trust, and should be brought under public oversight. There is no excuse for most of these episodes of corruption. National security must involve weapons of mass destruction, but since the end of the Cold War, applying it as a shield for other sensitive information is not justified.