Rights

When you hear the word rights, what is the first word that pops up in your head? What are our rights one might ask? To tell you the truth we have many rights as individuals. For the most  common we have the Bill of Rights.

Lets travel back in time to John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau ideas. They came up with Natural Rights and the Social Contract  along with other great ideals. Natural Rights are the right to life,liberty,and possessions/pursuit of happiness.The Social Contract is a contract between the people and its government. The people give power to the government so that the government can  protect their people Natural Rights.

So, fast forwarding history just a little bit to the French Revolution. The main cause of the Revolution was that the people felt they werent protected. The people grew angry and were starving. Monarchy is more than absolute power, but absolute power to make all the laws they wanted and since people believed back then that the kings were "put there by God" no one question the king for a while at least. The French has a Declaration of the Right of Man, to us Americans it is similar to our Bill of rights. Who created the French lovely document. The National Consituent Assembly.

Why do you find history so enchanting my friends ask? I find history more than enchanting, I find history an addictive subject to be honest, because through history you are opening and exploring past peoples thoughts and emotions. You are imagining and feeling what they felt in that era. From history you can learn from the mistakes of others. You can change the world by doing what they could not do or what they were limited to do. Through history you can always make a better future.

Now, back to the question I asked in the begining. What is the first word that pops in your head when you hear the word Rights?. Are the words inalienable or inherent or maybe its absolute. When I hear the word  rights the first thing that pops in my head  is Natural or simply the Bill of Rights.

The questions everyone seems to be asking nowadays are. Are our rights being taken away and if so by who?

-- Seta Ates