Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

Part 1 - Life
By

Michelle Hohmeier

I watched V for Vendetta the other night and it got me thinking. For those of
you, who have never seen it, the movie is set in Great Britain about ten to
fifteen years from now. The world is in chaos. The United States is in a civil
war and the only reason England isn’t is because they have a dictator, who
has feared the people into letting him take care of everyone. One man
stands alone in a battle for freedom among the British people. He is known
only as V.

When I first saw the movie, its prophetic nature struck me even then, but it
also gave me hope for our future. And today I sit at my computer pondering
the world I live in right now, in the present, speculating whether I will see a
future similar to what is portrayed in the movie. I hope, I pray not.

But the movie brings several things to mind. Some are what allowed the
dictator in V, Adam Sutler, to gain so much control. And in actuality, there
was only one thing, a single emotion he preyed on. The one emotion that
brings even some of the fiercest, strongest men to their knees. Fear. I think
it’s safe to say almost every human being has a fear. Even if it’s just one,
there is something that lurks in our hearts that, if allowed to surface, causes
our hands to sweat and our pulse to quicken.

In today’s world, the leaders of the United States are feeding on the fears of
their fellow countrymen. But this didn’t start in just the last two years or
even the last ten. For generations, our government has eased the American
people into allowing them to get into unconstitutional wars, give into their
political whims and give up our freedoms because they have struck fear into
our hearts. They have lulled society into believing we cannot take care of
ourselves. We NEED the government to do it for us. Because like Adam
Sutler said, “What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this
country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every
radio, seen on every television... I want EVERYONE to REMEMBER, why they
NEED us!” The United States government has been very successful in
persuading the people we NEED them. We have fallen so far away from the
original intent of the founding of this country it’s difficult to find the truth.

What is the truth?

The truth as I see it is we have been given a great gift by the Founding
Fathers, the gift of freedom. Every citizen of the United States is guaranteed
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are the basic tenants of the
country, our basic rights that no government can take from us. But what do
those three guarantees entail? And what is our role in preserving them?

Because of the complicated nature of this discussion, this paper will be split
into separate examinations of the three guarantees. But, let’s start at the
beginning of everything. Life.

We have diminished the sanctity, the preciousness of life in our country. We

have decided there are exceptions to the guarantee of life. But who are we?
Simply men living in a world made by the Creator. No matter your religious
affiliation, we as lowly humans should respect the wisdom and sovereignty of
the Creator over his creations just as our Founders did.

Whether a deist or Christian, the Founders understood this idea and believed
all our rights and privileges came directly from the Creator. That is why it is
said in the Declaration of Independence,

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.

This was not just the thought of these men; it was a general consensus
throughout the world at the time and for centuries before. Whether it was
one God or many gods, people believed in an almighty creator.

But what makes a right unalienable?

The three men I am about to quote were great influences to the founders of
our country. William Blackstone was a contemporary of the American patriots
in England, John Locke was an English philosopher, who died before the
American Revolution was a germ of conception and finally Marcus Tullius
Cicero, the great Roman philosopher.
William Blackstone commented on unalienable rights from his Commentaries
on the Laws of England.

Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are
therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid
of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are;
neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the
municipal laws to be inviolable.

Regarding the sanctity of life, John Locke had this to say.

The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which … teaches all
mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one
ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions; for men
being all the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise maker; all
the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by His order and
about His business; they are His property.

As far back as Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, the true nature of
God’s law was known, even by those who did not have a faith in Him. Cicero
said,

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal

application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its
commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions … It is a sin to try
to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is
impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by
senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder
or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws … now or in the
future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and
all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for
he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge.
Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human
nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.

There are many in society today that are working very diligently to influence
the people into believing the life of the unborn and/or elderly do not matter.
Life at its peak of productiveness is the only life worth supporting. And if life
will never reach a pre-determined productive height, as is for those with
disabilities, that life is not valid.

This may seem extreme to some, but it is inevitable. Once we begin to treat
the most innocent of life with such blasé callousness, we will become
hardened to any life that does not serve a preconceived purpose. That
preconceived purpose being dictated by those who govern us. Those, who
believe they have the knowledge of truth. Those, who believe they are our
gods.

And that is what makes life, from conception to death, such an important
foundation to preserve in a world cast into such a decadent state of being.

It doesn’t matter if that life resides in us, we do not have the right to chose
whether a life is sustained or not. We do not have the right to decide when a
life is no longer productive.

There is only one instance when a person’s right to life is to ever come into
question, and that is when it involves punishment for a crime. But I believe
that should be discussed under the heading of liberty. For at that time, the
perpetrator’s right to his life has invaded another person’s right to their life.

Like Cicero said, We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or

people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or
interpreter of it.

The truth lies within us, a bosom buddy of our fears for we fear because we
do not want to recognize the truth. What truth is that? The truth which is the
law of nature, the truth of right and wrong, the truth which was inscribed on
our hearts at the beginning of time. But like most transgressions we fear to
acknowledge, we have buried the truth under layer upon layer of self-
deceptive lies. We do not want to admit we are accountable to the creator.
We do not want to admit he is sovereign over us.

We must begin by admitting every life is precious. We must realize the

creator would not have brought a life into being without a reason.

Reason being a common attribute of man and creator, a process by which we

think logically, analyze and rationalize an issue until we come to a coherent
explanation. But reason is not something we learn at school, nor is it passed
on to us by our parents. Good sound reason comes from experience and
when reason is developed and matured, it is called wisdom.

So what is our role in preserving life? Grow in wisdom. Search for the
answers to your questions, not only from the news media and popular
sources, but dig deeper. Consider viewpoints that differ from yours. See if
maybe you are missing something. Because if you don’t know everything,
then there is always something to learn.