Bill of Rights Day celebrates freedom, reminds us to be vigilant by Brian Gottstein Guest columnist Wednesday, Dec. 15, is the 64th annual Bill of Rights Day, a national observance that was signed into practice by President Franklin Roosevelt on Dec. 15, 1941, 150 years after the ratification of the document by our forefathers in 1791. This day should remind all Americans of their commitment to individual freedom. The day should also remind politicians and bureaucrats that their power is limited -- that the government serves the citizens, and does not rule us. During the debates on the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, opponents of the Constitution charged that the document as drafted would open the door to a tyrannical central government. George Mason led the charge of delegates who refused to sign it without a bill of rights that would spell out the freedoms of individual citizens. Others feared that enumerating a bill of rights would imply that these were the only rights people had. The Bill of Rights was finally adopted four years after the Constitution was written, and the ninth and tenth Amendments were included to make it clear that the Bill of Rights was not a comprehensive list of individual rights, only the beginning. Dr. James Lark III, a former national chairman of the Libertarian Party and current member of the Libertarian National Committee who is a University of Virginia professor, has said that the Bill of Rights exemplifies a remarkable and unique notion in the world that our government exists to protect our rights, not to grant them. Although libertarians celebrate this day, they also lament that our freedoms have been under attack since the moment the Bill of Rights was ratified. Lark wrote in a recent op-ed, "As Thomas Jefferson noted, the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. We have now reached a point where the federal government is involved in most aspects of our lives, including controlling what substances we can ingest for our health, safety and comfort; determining for what wage rates we can offer our own labor; and regulating with whom we will associate in private commercial transactions." Take the time to read over the Bill of Rights and hold the laws you see being passed today at the federal, state, and local levels under its microscope. Many of the laws don't seem to acknowledge the concepts that people have inherent freedom, that the government doesn't grant these freedoms to us because they already belong to us, and that the powers of government should be severely limited, because whenever you give government power, you take away freedom from people. The Bill of Rights (in plain English): 1) The people have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, and freedom to petition the government to influence public policy. 2) The people have the right to keep and bear firearms. 3) The people will not be forced to house soldiers. 4) The people are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons and properties. Warrants, based upon probable cause, are needed for searches and certain arrests. 5) Any person accused of a crime shall have a trial by jury; he cannot be tried twice for the same crime; and he cannot be compelled to offer evidence against himself. People can't be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law (the government must act fairly and similarly with every person); and private property can't be taken for public use without just compensation. 6) A person has the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, and must be informed of the nature of the accusations against him and have a right to question his accusers. He also has the right to be represented by an attorney. 7) The right to trial by jury is guaranteed in civil cases (cases between private parties or between a private party and the government) heard in federal courts. 8) Courts shall not impose excessive bail, nor excessive fines, nor cruel and unusual punishments upon those accused or convicted of crimes. 9) The rights defined by the Bill of Rights are not the only ones we have. We have other rights that are inherent in being free people. 10) The powers that are not expressly given to the federal government nor denied to the states in the Constitution belong to the states or to the people. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, makes the laws (including the Bill of Rights) that bind the federal government also bind the state governments. www.lp.org