[ Prev | Next | Index ] 2/18/96, johann@cannet.com, James J. Johann, North
Canton, OH USA

(this web page was prepared gratis by CanNet Internet Services, Canton, OH)

              [Image] A CASE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FREEDOMS

                                  OLE JOHN

John Plantagenet ran the whole show. He was boss. Numero Uno. By divine
right even! King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and
Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou. That was his title.

But eventually he screwed up royal, so to speak.

You see, John started throwing his weight around too much, got a little too
high and mighty, being that he was the government and all, and he started
teeing people off. So, in the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth
year of his reign, a bunch of Barons hauled him off to a meadow, which is
called Runneymede between Windsor and Staines, and there they made him sign
a promise to clean up his act.

In short, any man was from then on going to be able to leave his estate to
his heirs and not to the crown; and from then on any man could be proceeded
against, but only by lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the
land. That was in 1215 and the promise the barons extracted was called THE
MAGNA CARTA.

If those barons could have looked way into the future they would have had a
few other suggestions for ole John. Like, John ole pal, now wouldn't we
have had a hell of a time gettin' you to agree to some of these things if
we were unarmed and you could just run all over us? And, John ole buddy,
how would we have gotten the word out if you were burning our books and
telling us what we can put on our Internet? Furthermore, John ole friend,
our heads belong to us and we'll helmet them if we want to; and our bodies
are our own and we'll decide.

So, ole John found out that the idea of rights, divine or otherwise, is
only as good as the people who are going to guarantee them for you. So, if
he hadn't signed that promise it would have been off with his head, his
right to be king notwithstanding.

Well, John's charter turned out to be the beginnings of common law that
grew in England throughout the centuries and eventually became the roots of
our law here in America. Our law is based upon what we think are our rights
and who is going to preserve them for us.

Nowhere on earth, and nowhere in time, has that notion of rights had a more
profound and beneficial effect on the the individual as it has had here in
the United States of America.

But two hundred years of rights, as defined in the Constitution, are now
under assault!

                                   OLE ME

I don't want to give up my right to decide to someone else. If I, who am
people, am too dumb to make proper choices for myself, what is it that
would make those in government, who are also people, any smarter than I and
any more capable of wiser choices for me than I am for myself?

I enjoy the fact that I can choose to wander around where ever I please and
that it is not any business of the government where I go. I want to
preserve, for myself, the right to choose whether to wear my helmet, or no;
to bear arms, or not; to read what I wish or to speak as I see fit.

                              OLE JOHN, AGAIN

It's true that some of the unhelmeted unwise will hurt themselves, and
maybe even cost me money if we are insured together. It's true that there
are those who will be injured or killed in the improper or malicious use of
firearms. It's true that radical thought, and protest, and yes,
pornography, will be visited upon many who do not want it and who are not
sensible enough to avoid looking at it or protecting their children from
it. But, it's also true that those things will also be visited upon those
who do want it, and that will be good.

But, when people like John go around telling me by the grace of God every
little thing I can do and can't do, then that's an even bigger problem; and
I'd rather a few beople did bang up their brains than have the Johns be
boss.

                                  [Image]