Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Interesting that this short idea was or needed to be included in the Constitution and yet the founding fathers felt it necessary to do so. Basically it says even though specific rights are written in this document, other rights are also retained by the people. What are those rights I wonder? The Founding Fathers could have spent the rest of their lives writing them down or they could make the assumption that common sense would prevail. In this case anything that may involve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and by definition those things that do not take away from others pursuit of these spoken goals. Again the implication in all rights is that it is always a two way street.
By that I mean that if one party expects this treatment they must indulge others in the self same expectation and that brings us to the current debate in Indiana. Yes Gay marriage should be allowed between consenting adults so that they may pursue life, liberty and their happiness, yet at the same time those who worship in a religion that does not recognize gay marriage should also be allowed to pursue their religion (Happiness) without restraint as long as they do not interfere with homosexuals who choose to marry. That is to say in a more common sense notion live and let live. For Homosexuals who are looking for a bakery look for them in businesses that are like minded and for the rest of us leave bigotry at the door. If ones religion is the problem so be it, allow them their discretions as they are allowing you to do what you want in kind, they do not have to participate in the event and you do not have to send profits their way. What we do not do is create a legal issue causing millions to be spent with no real winner in the end, because the issue has already been addressed in the 9th Amendment.
Another area this can be addressed is children reading the bible in school to themselves. How is that infringing on the rights of others? They are pursuing happiness in their own way and the rest of us should allow it in all cases, to include when the child is reading the book of Mormon or the Koran. Yet all over this nation this debate arises without merit and someone is always telling children how to pursue happiness, well I might remind you if you are not the child’s parents or guardians leave it be, it is none of your business.
I might make a note of the 1st amendment here and just say the separation of church and state has nothing to do with religion in schools or in the courts, it was intended to stop the church from having a vote in creating law or holding a permanent seat in either house. I would also make a note of the fact that this country was founded on Christian beliefs or moral thought, we have the ability to choose a different thought but laws should and will be created using that definition and for everyone else that is trying to make a point about your religion, just stop, go worship whatever you like just stop telling the rest of us what we should believe. As long as no one is being hurt or rights being infringed no one cares if you worship a teacup on the head of the mad hatter.
In fact I would argue that there are scores of unnecessary laws on the books that were created in an attempt to curtail others rights and they should all be eliminated. How many regulations are there, that have no real business with safety but simply to give the government another license to sell. That is also another infringement of the 9th amendment, except this time the government is guilty. We need a marriage license, (Why you ask, originally to stop interracial marriage) we need permits to build on our own property, we need permission to put up fences and we need licenses to start businesses which will also be taxed, We have city income taxes, state income taxes and federal income taxes, sin taxes and school taxes and very few are even proper for the government to enforce, who are they to tell anyone in this nation what to do on our own property, or who to marry, or where to work or even what to drink or smoke. The reality is that we are taxed into oblivion and in the end we are still in debt and the budget is not balanced and they will always ask for more. The point, these fees, taxes and permits have solved nothing but they do violate our rights as humans and maybe we as citizens should think about this a bit.
In the end we need to remember we have rights and so does everyone else and we should not be paying for anyone but ourselves, we are free to make our own choices and the government is in non compliance with the 9th amendment on daily basis, so maybe we should actually look at the law’s of the land a bit and stop interfering with each other.