Rights Versus Responsibilities

A minority of the members of our society, primarily Hollywood’s cesspool of failed ideologies and some elected officials who are undeserving of the trust placed on them by the citizens, expound their “Hate America” views and receive overwhelming media coverage overshadowing the strong support by the vast majority of our citizens for our country’s actions in Iraq.

The fact that anyone can dissent with the majority’s perspective on any issue, demonstrates one of the greatest strength of our system of government. It suffices to say, that all the citizens of our society will defend everyone’s “Right” to dissent. Indeed, thousands upon thousands of our citizens have made the ultimate sacrifice to assure that the “Right” to dissent always be one of the strongest pillars of our society.

The “Hate America Crowd” often justifies their vicious attacks as an act of exercising their “Rights of Expression” granted to them by our Constitution. Indeed, they are entitled to do so. However, these same individuals do not address the fact that as citizens we not only have “Rights” but we also have “Responsibilities.”

I strongly believe that a society cannot have “Rights” without “Responsibility”. It is the “Responsibility” of the citizens of a society to protect the “Rights” granted to them by previous generations and to assure that future generations can enjoy those same “Rights”. I also believe that there is a very fine line between “Rights” and “Responsibility”, a fine line that I shall call “Patriotism”. Patriotism, as defined by Bill Ziegler is “loving one’s country, respecting its traditions, and honoring its people.”