Page 33 - Fruits from a Poisonous Tree

Mel Stamper 17

only chance to protest what may end up being the most significant event in
our nation’s history – events that your grandchildren will not forgive you for
if you do nothing.
Some people argue that we live in a “lenient” society that has more than
enough liberty – that we can afford to lose some. Others have argued that
only those people who are criminals or buying and selling drugs or gun
owners have concern about the Bill of Rights.
Some might think my perception is too negative; they are probably
correct. But being a sentinel for freedom is my responsibility and yours as
well if we wish to remain a great nation. On my way to Hawaii three weeks
after the New York tragedy, I was sitting next to a young woman who worked
for the World Bank in Washington. She maintained those sentiments. As I
excused myself and moved to another seat, I told her that I was not going to
spend the next seven hours listening to an idiot mouth concepts about which
she had absolutely no understanding of the gravity of her conclusions.
In my opinion, most of the general population who espouse those beliefs
do not have the brains God gave a goose. They don’t realize that once the
freedom is given away, it will never be returned, and the rights which are used
by criminals to evade incarceration are the same rights which protect each of
us. If one is denied that right, so too will all be denied that right.
In undergraduate school, I took several American history courses, as that
subject has been of interest to me for the last thirty years and it is an excellent
foundation for law. But I discovered that what was written in the history
books was not the same as what was written in the settled case law of that
same time period. The law is where the true history of a nation is found, not
in a revisionist history book.
This nation’s history is composed of many great dreams and ambitions
which were sacrificed upon the altar of “pragmatism,” “necessity,”
“circumstance” and “thousands of dead heroes.” Our constitutional rights are
like that.
The government has never simultaneously observed all the first Ten
Amendments to the Constitution for the United States of America as they
are actually written. The government, all three branches, has always been
quick to say, “That’s not what they meant,” as if we are too stupid to read the
simple language of that compact and understand the founders’ intent; and
that’s in good times.
In dreadful times, when things get difficult and Americans are concerned,
distressed, or angry, things get suddenly worse. This has been true from the
very start of our nation.
Here are some examples of American history that we were not taught in
school.