What are we free to speak about?

My two favorite writings in the world are the Bible and the United States Constitution. By the way, my third favorite is Goethe's "Faust". The Constitution is an amazing document recognizing the right of the people to decide their future rather than an oligarchy. It was not universal enough, it did not allow slaves or women to vote. Those changes came later; but, they came by vote. These lines are debatable now; but, lets face it, we don't let everyone vote today either. 6 year old's cannot vote and neither can felons. By the way, non-citizens cannot vote either. The Constitution was not and will never be perfect, not the point. The purpose of the Constitution is to make sure that laws are not decided by the wealthy alone.

The founding fathers did not believe they needed to outline rights of people, they thought the framework for democracy would ensure that; but, the passage of time told them differently. They decided to amend the constitution, something it allowed for, and created the "Bill of Rights", the first ten amendments. So, what rights did they consider the most important to protect?

The first amendment states, "The Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press: or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." That was there number one priority. Why was the congress and not states prohibited from making a national religion? Well, the states would not have passed it otherwise. Remember, the Pilgrims came here to set up a required religion for their colony. States had tons of religious laws that lasted into the 1980s. Heck, New England still had "blue laws" in the late 70s listing the things you could not do on Sundays. I remember not be allowed to play music on Sundays until after the afternoon in New Hampshire. LOL. The first part of the amendment was offset by the second part, the freedom of speech. Congress was not allowed to prevent people saying what they wanted in different states. It did not stop states from limiting free speech. You can hate it; but, it is true.

You may wonder why the Constitution did not outlaw slavery. It's pretty simple, the southern states would not have joined the union and there would have been no United States. So, what was the second highest priority, the right of people to join state militia's and be armed. States wanted to know that they could protect themselves from other states and the nation. Remember, the Constitution came after the Articles of Confederation. After we became a nation under the Articles of Confederation, states put tariffs on one another.

The third amendment prevented the federal government from using the military to take over people's houses. The fourth amendment affected all states that people were free from unreasonable searches and seizures. That right applied to all citizens regardless of the state they lived in. The fifth amendment assured due process to all citizens regardless of the state they lived in. The sixth assured some basic rights in being charged with a crime. The seventh assured a basic right the right to a trial. The tenth helps explain the context for the first nine, it says that rights not specifically delegated to the federal government were kept by the states regarding creating legislation.

A quick not of interest. The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, the 14th Amendment did. Lincoln had no authority to end slavery, it required a Constitutional Amendment. The same amendment by accident or intent also ensured that the Bill of Rights applied to all citizens which meant states had to respect freedom of religion, speech, assembly and to own a gun if a member of a militia.

Still, the most important right was the right to hold and speak your beliefs. The European Union does not believe in the freedom of speech and has many "hate speech" laws prohibiting speech, including prohibiting condemning religious beliefs. Now the European Union is about to outlaw complaining about their immigration policies. Almost every government allows it's politicians and civil servants the freedom to investigate every issue; but, this same right will not be given to citizens of Europe.