Government and Death

What's going on is the American rejection of the core moral value of the intrinsic worth of every person, and the tragic failure of American government at all levels to take rights seriously.

Because the government glorifies violence -- constant wars, an annual defense budget larger than the next dozen countries combined, the adulation of the military, the encouragement and financing of abortions, collective punishment for the crimes of a few in the Middle East, and the use of the death penalty -- it undermines the value of human life and sets a tone whereby because the government kills with impunity, violence has become a personal tool.

Is it any wonder that deranged people pick up where the government has left off? For a person filled with hate and incapable of reason living in a society that rejects the intrinsic worth of every human life, is it very much of a leap from killing babies in the womb to killing strangers in a supermarket or a classroom?

Thomas Jefferson argued that the only moral purpose of government is to protect individual rights.

What is a right? A right is an indefeasible and permanent claim against the whole world that originates in our humanity. Thus the right to live, to worship or not to worship, to think as you wish, to say what you think, to publish what you say, to associate or not to associate, to acquire and use property, to defend your life and property, to travel, to leave the government, and to be left alone -- to pursue happiness -- are rights that are inherent in our nature. Rights are above the law. Like the color of our eyes, they are immune from the lawmaking power.

The government, which is an artificial entity based on a monopoly of force in a geographic area, may never morally interfere with our rights unless we waive them. A house burglar waives his natural rights when he violates the property rights of the legal occupant of the house.

But absent that waiver, the government cannot infringe upon rights without engaging in monstrous theft. And government theft has consequences. Whether it calls its theft "taxation" or "regulation," one can understand Nietzsche's aphorism that the government exists by lying and stealing.

So, when the government impairs the right to self-defense, but at the same time expects madmen to follow the law, the result is tragedy and the agony of endless heartbreak.

The government has banned God in the classroom and on the football field, banished Him from the public square and public buildings, and ignored His commands when it writes laws and unleashes violence.

When James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, he did not intend for the liberties that are protected thereby to become privileges subject to the whims of government. But through the long march of history, that's what has happened.

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