It wasn't the veterans who gave me the right to free speech.

[Bake]

Not dissing the veterans, not at all, but it wasn't them who gave us all the rights we have as Americans.

It was that pesky little piece of paper, the CONSTITUTION. Thank the Founding Fathers. Sarah Palin, please make a note of it.

Bake

[n2doc]

1. Not to mention many brave Judges and Lawyers who upheld those rights

As we have seen lately, it doesn't take much, a Supreme Court Decision here and there, to have those rights vanish at the point of a (police) gun.

[WeDidIt]

2. Even the constitution didn't GIVE you any rights

According to the founders, all are born with certain rights that nobody can take away.

You are entitled to your rights.

[Bake]

7. Right you ARE!!!!!

Nail, meet hammer!

Bake

[Clio the Leo]

3. Actually ...... it wasn't even the Constitution....

.... the Constitution only ennumerates your rights.

Your rights were given to you by your mama when she birthed you. ;)

This is precisely the problem with Guantanamo .... ALL humans have the rights that we are guaranteed, regardless of what country they were born in.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Exactly, the Declaration of Independence gave the moral right and the Constitution

gave the legal right. They are the contracts and any political leader downplaying their significance or import should be impeached.

The veterans and the President swear an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign or domestic.

The veterans are the sword, but without the Constitution guaranteeing your rights and guiding their principles, the sword could and would cut both ways, under a corrupt leadership.

This is one reason why I'm against corporate mercenary groups such as Blackwater, they have no such constraints, and are in it for the money alone. I believe they're a leech on the military and the stronger they get the weaker, the publics military will become.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, dbaker.

[Bubbha Jo]

5. This veteran totally agrees with you....

The ones who defend our rights at the moment are usually the ACLU.

Our military defends our borders, just like the Chinese army does. Either group have nothing to do with the freedoms of the citizens within those borders.

[suston96]

6. As has been already and quickly said, our rights are natural - we are born with them......

...we create government to secure (protect) those rights. That's because some, if not many of those rights are difficult to sustain or to practice by ourselves.

Most precious is "...the right to vote - without which all other rights are illusory." (Justice Hugo Black).

[insanity]

8. More to the point, it was the 14th Amendment

The Constitution guarantees rights in the Federal Sphere (Congress shall make no law...) States were still free to discriminate and often did. When the 14th Amendment passed, our legal protection was expanded to all spheres of government.

[dmallind]

9. Well sort of

It was the veterans of the Revolutionary war. Financed and aided in great part by the French (always tell wingnuts that - annoys the hell out of 'em - it's the perfect comeback for the "if it weren't for us the Europeans would all be nazis!" screed with the advantage of being more definitively true) that allowed the constitution to become law.

I have no gripe with the military either but I can't recall a single war in the last 190 years - and yes that includes the big ones and the Cold one - where our freedom in this country was in any way at risk. Hitler had no plans and definitely no ability to conquer the US and the Russians to my knowledge never seriously considered invasions either. If the idea is only our strong military keeps us from being attacked, how the hell do teh likes of Sweden manage to not be part of somebody's empire by now?

[VoodooGuru]

10. Favorite rejoinder

To the stupid RW meme that soldiers = freedom, protesters = good-for-nothing malcontents:

"Ever heard of the Boston Tea Party?"