Thursday, September 18, 2008

From xxlemonliebe

If you were forced to choose 5 of your rights to keep, which 5 would you give up?

This is a really, REALLY hard question to answer. There’s one right that I don’t mind giving up, and that’s the Second Amendment: the right to keep and bear arms. I don’t really feel that we have much need for guns—but that’s probably just my inner hippie talking. J Still, that would be the easiest right for me to let go. The second easiest right for me to give up would probably be the Third Amendment, protection from quartering of troops. While housing a bunch of soldiers would be a problem, it’s a smaller problem than losing freedom of speech, or protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
It’s here that I come to a crossroads. The rest of my rights are all of equal value! Some I can’t even think about getting rid of, like right to assembly and unreasonable seizure, but I still want to keep the rest!
The Fifth Amendment (Right to silence) is something I am reluctant to give up, but it’s the easiest to. Right to silence takes away your right to stay quiet, but it shouldn’t make much of a difference if you are truly innocent and on trial. If we still have the right to a fair trial by jury, then innocence can be proven if the jury (and the judge) listen to you. I’m also willing to give up the Seventh Amendment: right to trial by jury if the value of the crime is more than $20. I’m okay with giving this up because the Sixth Amendment includes right to a fair jury and a speedy & public trial, so that right isn’t completely gone once it’s taken away.
I obviously want to keep the Sixth Amendment, because it’s the only reason I felt okay about giving up the Seventh Amendment. But, giving the government extra powers could make it incredibly corrupt and that would be a major problem. If the government had all the power, then America wouldn’t be a proper democracy anymore. So yet again, I am at a crossroad.
My final decision, after much pondering, is that a fair trial is something everyone needs, and America, made with the blood, sweat, and tears of every citizen and resident, has enough support that the government will most likely not become corrupt from excessive power. To sum everything up, I chose to give up the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), the Third Amendment (protection from quartering of troops), the Fifth Amendment (right to silence), the Seventh Amendment (Right to trial by jury if the value of the crime is over 20 dollars), and the Tenth Amendment (Only powers specifically appointed to the government by the Constitution lay with the government; all other powers remain in individual states).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The bill of rights is EXTREMELY important to everyday life. For example, if we didn't have the freedom of speech, could we have class debates at all? Even the littlest of things are affected, such as what we do in class, and up to the important things such as attempting to change an unfair law. I could live without the right to bear arms, to not let soldiers stay in your house during a time of peace, and the right to a lawyer. I think this blog was very interesting and I LOVED the video we watched in class about it!!!

Weasley's Wheezes!!!