Our rights.
The Bill of Rights stems from those natural rights…at least in my opinion. I ain’t a lawyer, thank goodness.
And if my schooling and failing memory are correct, this Bill of Rights sought out to protect us from our own newly created government. It sought out to call out these rights simply…and protect us from tyranny.
It put into simple language a guarantee of a number of personal freedoms, limit the government’s power in certain areas, and provide power to the states and the public.
The Bill of Rights cements our national culture, I feel.
Help me out here, smarter people than I.
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But can an American overrule this foundation, the Bill of Rights. Singly overrule this foundation?
Yes.
Its called an Executive Order. The President of the United States can act as a monarch in concept.
Tremendous power, yes?
But do we learn from our past mistakes?
A kind reminder: FDR signed an Executive Order in 1942.
Executive Order 9066. Notice, readers, it is not “We the people”. It is filled with “I”.
This Executive Order resulted in this somewhat familiar poster:
It stripped my father, uncle, aunt, and cousins completely of their rights.
Not just one right. All of their rights.
They were forced out of the West Coast and forced to live in concentration camps if they could not afford to move.
Their US Passports were confiscated. They were fingerprinted, photographed and assigned an inmate number. Man, woman or child…or baby.
All this happened with one signature. FDR’s.
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Some people say this Executive Order arose out of hysteria. Reaction to something that happened.
I just want to say I am against any Executive Order. Large or small in its magnitude. By definition, it serves to nullify the Bill of Rights.
One person – one signature – is not right.
Just wanted to get this off my chest.
Masako and Spam Musubi 
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Very eloquent, Animalcouriers. Very eloquent.
believe it was Lord Aster who came up with it originally 😉
I still think you are eloquent! 😉
I’m not as smart as you Koji. But even I understood this. 😦 Animal Couriers spoke more eloquently than I.
I am NOT smart nor educated with politics, Chatter Master. 😉 I just jotted down something that was really bugging me the past month or so. The reaction to a tragic event, the hysteria so to speak, the demands by many to “do something” against the wishes of the others… And now, the threat of another EO just angered me.
And I understood. I suspect the anger is boiling for many different reasons. Your’s is likely not one people pay attention to. But it matters. A great deal.
Oh. And by the way. You are smart. So…there.
Well said Koji…
You the People need to speak out.
We did the same in Canada with the Japanese people after December 7th, 1941 .
Well, it wasn’t about the imprisonment of the Japanese Americans during WWII, per se, Pierre. But now, there is a threat by the White House about another Executive Order…
That needed to be said Koji ! Not always, but sometimes, being a member of the human race is an embarrassment. The misery we inflict on ourselves, I said “on ourselves”, is staggering and bewildering.
Thank you, sir. This situation is difficult but treading on our given rights is a no-no IMHO…especially through an EO no matter its contents.
Agree. Shame on us. Shame.
Where IS the shame, incidentally? I think that is one of the key ingredients missing from our society. Shame on us for having no shame.
Touche, seapunk2, touche.
Thank you for getting that off your chest and into our consciousness, where it belongs.
Thank you for reading the rant! 😉
I didn’t read a rant. I read truth. If more of us would SEE the truth, believe the truth, act on truth, a truth based in reality and not of power, then we may not stand as ‘we the (few) people’ or we the (middle class) people or we the (powerless) people.
I’m glad you wrote it. Write some more.
Thank you for your kind words, seapunk2. I would like to write more but tennis elbow and my daughter getting married day after tomorrow makes it hard. 😉
I couldn’t agree more my friend. What is happening in our Country by our leaders today is indeed frightening
Thank you, good sir. As you know, we had a tragedy in CT last year. Now, the White House us threatening an Executive Order. I am not condoning the horrific event caused by a mentally unstable condition but perhaps this threat by the White House harks back to December 1941…
The movie theater incident in Colorado was horrific too but these heinous acts were all committed by mentally disturbed individuals. The current President has issued over 900 Executive Orders since taking office in 2009 so I understand your concerns. I fear he is attempting a complete takeover of our Country and the Constitution and Bill of Rights be damned. We are moving toward a very dark place from which there may be no coming back.
Picked up in the comments that your daughter is getting married, Koji. Congratulations.
Thanks, Curt. She did…! It was a lovely outdoor ceremony…without termites!
Saw the photo. It looked like a great wedding… and your daughter looked lovely.
I keep saying, “Thank you!”
What happened to Japanese Americans will forever be a blot on our history. I can see why you have concerns about Executive Orders. You have an interesting point of view. I don’t think many Americans have even read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. We are generally a very apathetic populace. I don’t blame the politicians as much as I blame the people who keep them in power. Very alarming really.
I had no idea that was done by an Executive Order. I agree with you (even before I knew that), when one person has too much power and knows he can get away with it then we do have the makings of a tyrant. Our founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing in creating the Bill of Rights but sadly the politicians found a way around it.
Yes, it is sad – at least to me. While there is the impending EO being threatened, the gist is the same. It’s one man – the president – doing something to hurdle over our country’s basic foundation. Yes, there is public hysteria and the president is politically feeding off that hysteria as did FDR. That is what I do not care for.
Thank you for your comment and thoughts. I also hope things are warm out your way.
It was warm but it did not last long, yesterday no coat only a sweater, tonight snow, sleet, freezing rain a nice PA wintry mix and cold. Just another beautiful day in PA!! 😀 Are you sure do not want to leave the sunny warmth of CA and live in a state that boasts of a wintry mix as being a normal day?!
We can all hope that this gun control thing is only BO letting off steam, although I doubt it. He will take control a little at a time to see how far he can go and then when no one is looking take over.
FDR’s order confirmed my father’s feelings about him – amoral and illegal – a crook who got elected because of his family’s money and connections and that fact (along with many others) was hidden from the public. FDR’s connections in CA helped the Exec. Order get written.
I wholeheartedly concur. He was a master of politics and rode the swells of public sentiment… It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had he not died in office.
Truthfully, I believe he would have died in office – one way or the other. (Some people don’t realize that we have already had our first lady prez – Eleanor.
Haha. That is quite observant…and it is a reflection she and FDR lived totally separate lives. Imagine if CNN was around then… Well, maybe it wouldn’t have been picked up. J/K.
With what they were BOTH up to – inquiring minds would want to know.
Koji: you may not consider yourself smart, but you certainly do GET IT (which is smart in my book). You are absolutely right about the Bill of Rights. Those men who wrote it were quite cognizant of the events from which they had recently extricated themselves, and they were determined to set up a system that would prevent it from happening again. They knew that THE PEOPLE would need to have the right to speak, gather, write about (press), and petition the government. So they put all that along with religious freedom into the FIRST amendment. But realizing that speech and petitions are impotent without the force to back them up, if necessary, they determined that THE PEOPLE should have the right to maintain arms in case the government became tyrannical; therefore, the right to arms is the second amendment and not the 10th.
You and your readers seem to understand this better than the average American since the majority of the people seem to want a president and a party who circumvent the Constitution and ignore the Bill of Rights. Democrats last weekend urged Obama to issue executive orders to bypass Congress when dealing with the issue of a national debt, and Obama has said that he is considering an executive order concerning gun control. With thunderous applause ignorance strangles the very liberty in which we have been conceived, and our “knee-jerk” politicians and populace are more than willing to use senseless tragedies to further their control of the people. I have a degree that covers history, political science, and economics, and I taught school for almost 18 years. I gave copies of the Constitution to my students and I tried to care about them while trying also to have standards in the classroom. I was forced to resign and have since been “blackballed” from the career for my efforts. NOTHING is quite so blissful and daily orgasmic than complete ignorance. So the people say –
Hospitals are expensive: let the government take care of that.
People use guns to kill: let the government regulate guns and ammunition
We owe trillions: let the government borrow, spend, and print more money
People are overweight: let the government plan their diets
People smoke: let the government control when and where
People need to retire: let the government give them money
Students are getting dumber: let the government teach (brainwash) them
Republicans want to debate issues: let Obama make the decisions
No Koji – you are smart enough to see what is happening to our society – the society your father and my father served to protect. You are one of a few that may soon be called upon to preserve our freedom again. You and I may very well find ourselves pledging to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Patrick, very well written expressions of your thoughts and love of country. Your last “bullet points” are what apparently the majority of Americans voted for which I feel is sad. Our country is indeed headed down the wrong path, cleared by a president who is riding public hysteria and demands – as did FDR… while using that hysteria as an approval to override the Bill of Rights. I am NOT condoning the tragedy in CT last year. But no one has stopped to realize that texting while driving kill or maim thousands more of our people – young or old – each year than by murder through usage of whatever “weapon”…the same people who may be screaming for gun control.
“The man who would be King”. This phrase has been echoing through my head more and more as I watch President Obama bypass and circumvent political processes with his mighty “sword” – the pen.
Sometimes I wonder if as a boy (I’ve been corresponding with some South African ones) he had the wrong impression of what it meant to be ‘President’ when he moved into the White House – because he certainly seems on the ‘path’ to exercising his power as a “Kingship”.
Not saying it’s right, not saying it’s wrong – but it makes me sick to see the America ‘way’ perverted towards – and for – those who seek power – much as FDR and others did.
I agree with the concepts you expressed in your comment.
You have some fantastic photos on the flickr site, great work.
Your compliment is greatly appreciated. I do have hundreds more but my tennis elbow is preventing my from retouching the photos. Quite painful, honestly.
Thanks for sounding the alarm about this, far too many people just don’t know about it. I never knew untill I reached college about this TRUE story of what happened to Japanese Americans (many of whose relatives were fighting and dying for the USA in World War II; see Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii for the memorial in their honor – read more about it here:) http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Apr/03/ln/ln01a.html
I still meet many people who do not realize that ONE MAN was capable of ordering this imprisonment, and this power is still there and being used with increasing frequency. And FDR is considered by many to be one of our greatest presidents! I appreciate that you are letting people know such power is DANGEROUS.
Thank you for reading the blog and your good comments… But I must apologize for leading you astray with my poor writing… The gist was that our current president has/will sign yet another Executive Order potentially encroaching on our rights as clarified in the Bill of Rights. The subject is not whether guns kill or not… it is just the concept that the President can exercise his whim with the stroke of a (unfeathered) pen. 🙂