In Defense of Freedom
By Nancy Salvato

According to "Devilstower", a blogger on the DailyKos website, human rights are more important than national security. She explains, "Even if it was sure to be lost in a terrorist attack today, my life is not worth the Constitution. The life of my child is not worth the Constitution." This same blogger believes that presidents Bush, Roosevelt, and Lincoln set aside their duty to uphold the constitution in exchange for the illusion of security.

"Devilstower" seems to have missed the whole idea behind instituting a constitution, which is that government is instituted to protect the peoples’ right to life, liberty and property, and the right to defend themselves against those who would rob, enslave, or kill them. This right, which the Constitution is designed to protect, is derived from Natural Law* not from the Constitution itself.

Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, proclaims:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal."

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground-- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, to stand here, we here be dedica-ted to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"Devilstower states, "The life of hundreds -- thousands -- is not worth setting aside the rights ensured to us by the Constitution. Because setting aside the Constitution is a defeat greater than any that can be delivered to us by any instrument of terror or war." Isn’t it clear that those soldiers, of whom Lincoln spoke, gave their lives to preserve the union and to end the practice of slavery, a practice which had been under the protection of our Constitution?

In Federalist 14, James Madison says shedding blood is what makes us one people when he is describing, "...the kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their sacred rights." Federalist 14 is the precursor of the Gettysburg address, which indicates the union is to be preserved. We must be willing to sacrifice on behalf of liberty, to commit to the protection of our mutual liberty. As Lincoln explained in his Gettysburg Address, these patriots lost their lives in order to preserve our union. "Devilstower" clearly has no understanding of what binds us together as a nation.

Certainly, we are at risk from an act of terrorism. And everyday it becomes more and more clear that we need to protect ourselves and our society from this risk. "Devilstower" doesn’t understand that by agreeing to live as citizens in this country, we agree to live as one nation, united by the beliefs which the Constitution was designed to protect. Has this blogger read the preamble to the Constitution?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We are being threatened by those who openly proclaim that Sharia Law is to be held above our rule of law, and who have proclaimed jihad against us. The Wahhabist and the al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden has declared war against us twice, once in a l996 Fatwa and once in a l998 Fatwa, calling for the demise of the west and in particular the United States and the establishment of a global caliphate (global Sharia Law).

If "Devilstower" truly believes it is acceptable to live in fear of being put to death for naming a Teddy Bear Muhammad, then she is unable to comprehend what is meant by Natural Law. "Law derives from our right to defend ourselves and our property, not from the power of the state." [1] "Devilstower" doesn’t understand the belief system behind our country’s founding documents. Perhaps "Devilstower" never read our Declaration of Independence all the way to the end of the document.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

"An act is a violation of natural law if, were a man to commit such an act in a state of nature, (that is to say, in the absence of an orderly and widely accepted method of resolving disputes), a second man, knowing the facts and being a reasonable man, would reasonably conclude that the first man constituted a threat or danger to the second man, his family, or his property, and if a third man, knowing the facts and being a reasonable man, were to observe the second man getting rid of the first man, the third man would not reasonably conclude that the second man constituted a threat or danger to third man, his family, or his property." [2] Sharia Law does not recognize Natural Law and is, in fact, the polar opposite of this idea. It is justifiable to wage battle against those who would take away our freedom.

Footnotes:
[1-2] Natural Law and Natural Rights http://jim.com/rights.html (For those who would like to read more about the beliefs surrounding our founding documents, let me recommend you do some further reading at the following website: James's Liberty file collection http://jim.com/)

Nancy Salvato is the Director of Education and the Constitutional Literacy Program for Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan 501 (C) (3) research and educational project whose mission is to promote the education of the American public on the basic elements of relevant political, legal and social issues important to our country. She serves as the Assistant Provost for the American College of Education and as the Education Editor for The New Media Journal. She is also a staff writer, for the New Media Alliance, Inc., a non-profit (501c3) coalition of writers and grass-roots media outlets, and a frequent contributing writer to The World & I educational magazine.