OPINION:
Today we recognize the Declaration of Independence, which essentially defines the American dream: inalienable natural rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution establishes a government embodying these rights by promoting general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty.
Whatever the Constitution further defines relies upon natural human rights independent of and superior to any government construction. These rights are intangible property sourced in opinion, religion, communications, use of abilities to labor physically and mentally, and in conscience. Only by application of these inherent rights can one truly possess material things.
The American dream never meant government largesse ensuring college funds, retirement accounts, savings, affordable health care, homeownership, lifetime employment, corporate wealth, political careers and union benefits. Politicians become patricians, offering these enchanting elements of material security while obscuring subservience to administrative laws and regulations that vastly increase their power.
Under English common law, basic to our Constitution, a person is innocent and not subject to the penalties of the law until proven guilty. Administrative laws and regulations are like Roman civil law, which subjected people to penalties and restrictions until they found legal means to extricate themselves.
People now routinely make unconscious Faustian bargains to exchange their human essence for illusions of material comfort. However, freedom requires uncompromising adherence to an American ideal of inherent natural rights.
NOLAN NELSON
Eugene, Ore.
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