By Their Creator

I sent the following letter to Barack Obama in response to his remarks to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Awards Gala:

Dear President Obama,

In the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson writes:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Emphasis mine.)

In your remarks to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Awards Gala, you quoted this passage, but deliberately omitted the words “by their Creator”. In so doing, you have changed the entire meaning of this important statement. Let me break it down for you.

1. Thomas Jefferson makes a truth-claim: “We hold these truths to be self evident,” meaning that this is a fundamental truth, a given.
2. He goes on to say what his truth-claim is: “that all men are created equal,” meaning that there are no natural-born monarchs, aristocracy or commoners. We are all commoners.
3. Jefferson then further states: “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” meaning that we have birthrights that no government can bestow, and that no government can alienate.
4. Finally, he lists but three: “that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Which is to say, there are many more, of course. The number is, in fact, infinite.

By expurgating “by their creator”, you remove the critically important statement that we have birthrights that no government can bestow, and that no government can alienate, thus paving the way for a statist utopia, or statist hell, more likely.

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Mr. President, you claim to be a Christian, so I must assume that you believe in God, the Creator. Nevertheless, even if you do not, Humanity exists, so something created us – if not God, then evolution – unless God created evolution … but I digress – we have a creator.

If you want to know what your natural rights are, try this thought experiment: Imagine that you and your family wake up tomorrow morning, naked in the Antarctic wilderness – no government, no society, only your naked bodies. What are your rights? They are infinite. You can do whatever you want. There is no government or anyone else to tell you what to do, or what not to do. You will probably want to exercise your right to find shelter, food and clothing first. You might want to exercise your right to defend yourself against wildlife that would consider you their lunch. Conversely, you might want to consider making the wildlife your lunch. I’m just saying.

The point here is, there is no natural right simply to receive shelter, food and clothing. It is your right – and your responsibility – to work for it by whatever means available, if you wish to survive. Now, for the sake of argument, let us say that you stumble upon a remote settlement of humans. Do they give you food, shelter, or clothing? There is no government to compel them to do so. They might have compassion, or they might think you could help them to survive. Therefore, they might voluntarily decide to help you. However, if you or anyone else tried to take their things by force for your benefit, they would be within their rights to defend themselves against the theft. Now, think again about the proper role of government, and about the limited powers enumerated in the Constitution.

Sincerely,
Karl Uppiano

Everything below the line was cut off by the word limit imposed by the White House website.