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     The following text is the original text of the first amendment ratified December 15, 1791.

"Amendment I- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

     So what does all this mean? Well let’s break it down into sections and examine them separately then put it back together to see the big picture.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

     The first part of this statement is there because of what our forefathers left. They left behind an England that was church ran. In order to be part of the government you had to be one specific type of Christianity. They saw the dangers of forcing spiritual beliefs with government power. With this being said, and the proof is in the monuments all over D.C., this does not say that government can not participate in spiritual beliefs or the displaying of them. Whether you are Christian or not, the laws of this land were based upon the 10 commandments. On all the money it states "In God We Trust". They open sessions of the House and Senate with prayer. This does not infringe on anyone’s personal beliefs because these actions need not be followed or believed. You do have to follow the laws that are constitutional, but you do not have to follow anyone’s worshipful habits or behaviors.
     This brings us to the second part of this statement. The government cannot interfere with any practice of your spiritual beliefs. This includes any spiritual lifestyle decisions you choose to incorporate into your life as a part of your faith. Any belief that takes away from another individual’s constitutional rights, however, are not protected. (Such as living sacrifice, forcing others to join your beliefs, killing over religion, etc.) Any religion you choose for yourself or spiritual conclusions you care to embrace are your choice ALONE to decide for you and your minor children. Once those children come of legal age they can choose their spiritual path. Atheism is a religion. Religion is a spiritual choice. The choice of atheism is to deny any spiritual aspect they may have. Atheists have a right to their stance as well and is protected by this amendment. An atheist can run for president, but if he or she wins cannot ban all display of religious symbols.
     This is where the ACLU comes in as an unconstitutional organization. All displays of religious symbols are protected by the constitution. You do not have to agree or enjoy any religious display, but it does not have to be hidden from you because you don’t like it. If a court house puts out a manger scene at Christmas it is their decision. I don’t believe the manger scene should be bought with taxpayer money, unless donated. If it is supplied it may be displayed if decided on by the employees. Schools can have Christmas concerts with Christmas songs as long as they are not attempting to convert to Christianity in the process. Students cannot be penalized or ridiculed for not participating in any such activity, because their right is also protected. There can be compromise to include more faiths without exclusion. Holiday programs only allow non-spiritual messages. This monopolizes it to be a strictly atheist activity. This is fine if this is what is agreed upon by the majority. The problem is the majority can become corrupted just as the attorneys who have the power to force things upon the people have become corrupted. This is why the constitution exists. If out of 100 people, 96 people agree to have a Christmas program and 4 are against it, the 4 do not have to be involved and cannot be forced to be involved or they can address their grievance with the Government to seek recourse. It is this simple. Your faith is your choice. It is your freedom to exercise any spiritual beliefs. Religion is practiced by all. No one has the superior outlook on a Creator, therefore all by this amendment are protected.
     Our Government has been violating this constitutional right for decades. We slaughtered the Indians because we did not understand their practices and forced Christianity down the throats of their children. We killed "witches" in mock trials ran by state governments. We have banned the Bible from being carried into public schools. Public prayer is frowned upon and even sued to cease. Muslim tolerance and religious understanding classes are a requirement in some schools to attend. These are just a few cases. If you do your homework, you could find literally hundreds of examples of this.

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"

     When our forefathers left England to become colonists, there were fellow brethren being killed or jailed for speaking out against the King of England and the government he ran. The press was fed the stories to print to influence the popular outlook toward the king and to slant the view of facts to cover the truth. This amendment is to prevent these things from happening. With the freedoms of speech and of the press comes a common responsibility. Truth. Many have heard the fact that freedom of speech does not mean you have the right to yell "Fire!" in the middle of a crowded theater when there is no fire. You can actually be fined and/or jailed for doing such an act. Lies are not protected by the first amendment. Opinions are protected by the first amendment. Opinions and truth are to be separated and labeled as such when dealing with the press. Their was a time when yellow journalism spearheaded agendas and stereotypes into the public with little or no truth involved. Those individuals lost their right to print documents and call them "news". What do we do today when a person of the press runs a story that is false? They say "Sorry", and just move on handing us more malarkey to see if eat that lie. No penalties. "Well, everybody lies." This is not a reason to accept it. This is an excuse of laziness! If we allow people to continually lie to us, we paint ourselves as fools! Lying is an abuse of your freedom of speech. If the Native American tradition, a man who lies loses all respect he once received from others and in some cases was exiled from the tribe. What kind of America would we have if we exiled liars? An empty one, if you ask me. There is an undeniable power in the truth that no lie can destroy. Yes a lie can cover it up, but the truth always exists. In truth, there is no need for defense. The truth just is. Black is black. North is north. A female is a female, and so on. Your opinion of the truth is open to your own discretion and has a right to be expressed. People have an equal right to express opposing opinions. You have a right to disagree. You have a right to debate. You have a right to argue peaceably. You do not have a right to silence any truth or opinion except in your personal space. No one has a right to barge into your home and start telling you’re their opinion of your life without invitation. This includes the government, but I’ll touch more on this when I talk of the fourth amendment.
     I am putting myself out here writing these pieces for all to read. Because of our patriot act that is in place, the Government has made it law to monitor all dialog in any manner, whether by mail, phone, or internet. If my piece on the second amendment does not set off some red flags I will be surprised. What I am writing is truth, but due to this law I can be labeled a terrorist for such statements. These statements are nothing more than modern day echoes of those who formed this government back in the infant stages of this republic. I have a God given right, duty, and privilege to speak these truths to make people aware of what their real rights are in this country. You as a person have the choice to agree, disagree, or ignore what I write. This is what makes our country great! You and I have all these choices and no one, including the Government, has the authority to take it away from us, for any reason or excuse, unjustly and without due process.

"Congress shall make no law respecting...the right of the people peaceably to assemble"

      This right gives all Americans the right to congregate, for whatever reason, publicly or privately. This includes protest, parades, communication, and other things as well as long as in this process other’s rights are not compromised. Bringing in the freedom of speech, these groups or assemblies can speak any opinion or truth they desire. If the message is of hatred and it discusses illegal activities done directly or indirectly toward any individual are covered under our laws and can be dispersed or arrested. These rights encompass all Americans. Therefore, if you want your rights you have to allow those who have opposing views to have these same God given rights. The only exceptions are those who violate another’s rights and/or life.
     Again, the patriot act is the latest offender of laws passed by our representatives that affects this right. If you assemble you are watched, documented, and policed. By making your thoughts public you lose your right to privacy (fourth amendment). Our forefathers feared that someday our country would be run by an elite few instead of by the people, for the people. I dare say that the day is upon us. We cannot let this continue.

"Congress shall make no laws respecting...the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

     The word "redress" means 'to make right, to adjust, to compensate'. This means that whenever our rights or property or self is infringed upon or violated we have the right to seek out help in our government to correct the effects of such actions. This means that the government has the obligation to listen to such grievances to see if there is any merit to such grievances. If so, they have the authority to correct said injustices in concordance with upholding the constitution. What this means is if a child is shot in a drive by shooting, the family can pursue criminal and civil avenues to bring to justice the one who murdered or assisted in the murder of their child. This does not give them the right to go after the gun maker of the gun used, the bullet manufacturer of the bullet used, the car company of the car driven, or the state for not putting up bullet-proof paneling along the streets. If an individual believes that they were not heard fairly in court, they have the right to appeals, and in most cases, the right to start such deliberations over from the beginning throwing out the previous findings by the first court.
     The case with Terri Shiavo violated quite a few constitutional rights of her and her parents. They were first violated by her husband under amendment V which states no person shall lose life, liberty, or property without due process. He received a settlement of a sizable amount FOR HER REHABILITATION! He then decided that she would not want to live this way and pursued her "right to die".  Then Judge Greer violated her right by systematically throwing out ALL evidence that pointed to Michael Shiavo as having suspicions around him as her legal guardian inhibiting her due process. He then violated her rights under amendment VIII as "cruel and unusual punishment" by ordering her to be starved and dehydrated to death. This is an act we cannot perform on an individual who tortured and killed 12 people in cold blood. The appeal courts violated her rights by not allowing due process in the grievance of the family. Because there was no legal document stating her personal choice of life or death, we had no choice, according to the constitution, but to error on the side of life.
     The interpretation of any of these constitutional rights cannot deny another right covered by the constitution. No where in the constitution does it discuss a person’s right to die. It discusses quite the opposite: The rights to life, liberty, and property. The powers not delegated to the Government by the constitution are held by the people. US. Not some state judge with self righteous egotism with the desire to play God and decide the fates of the ill and handicapped! Though she has died today, we have the chance to begin today the peaceful revolution to our government. We cannot allow those who are weak to be run over by an agenda. If we do not fight for them today, who will be there to fight for us tomorrow. We can flood our Congress and Senate with e-mails, phone calls and letters to still pursue what has happened. We can ask them to call this judge in and make him testify to why he broke the law in ignoring a subpoena for Terri to appear before the Senate. He should be held in accordance as any citizen would who either did not respond to or impeded someone else’s ability to answer a subpoena. We have the right, duty, and privilege to pursue this until justice is reached and this cannot happen again.

     I encourage you to print this out and to share it with as many people as possible. I write this as just the messenger of the information. I do not look to prosper from this in any way other than getting my America back from the elite few who are running everything right now. We can only do this if we start looking at each other in the way we truly are, brothers and sisters. We all come from the same source, whether big bang of chaos or destined choice of God. We the people must unite so we can enjoy the right to be an individual.

Posted: March 31, 2005