that was great lou...thanks

Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence one of the most brilliant definitions of freedom in history:

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.

We don't use the terms inalienable or unalienable much today, but in the eighteenth century they were well known and often used.
Alienable is a form of the word alienate: to take away from, to separate. An alienable right is a right that can be taken from you or a right that you can transfer to another. For example, owning a car is an alienable right. Selling the car and transferring the title to another alienates your right to own and drive that car-you have alienated yourself from the possession and use of the car. If you have an alienable right to something, the government can-with just cause-take it from you. In time of war, or building a new freeway, the government can take your house, for which you would be paid the fair market value.

Inalienable rights, on the other hand, are rights that cannot be taken from you or transferred to another no matter what. These are the basic rights guaranteed to every citizen of the republic. What did our founding fathers consider to be our basic, inalienable rights? "Among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Wrote Samuel Eliot Morison in The Oxford History of the American People (1965),

These words are more revolutionary than anything written by Robespierre, Marx, or Lenin, more explosive than the atom, a continual challenge to ourselves as well as an inspiration to the oppressed of all the world.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness cannot be taken from us; they are inalienable. Note that inalienable rights are not limited to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: "among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (emphasis added).

Life is obvious; it is our physical life. Liberty is the freedom to live that life the way we choose. The phrase the pursuit of happiness is so vague, so broad, and so far-reaching that it is revolutionary even today-perhaps especially today. It, of course, does not guarantee happiness; but it does give us the right to pursue happiness-whatever we think that may be, in whatever way we think will get us there.

http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/202a.htm


Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as Elohim for Yahushua the Messiah's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32




Edited 1 time by amharican 07/04/07 16:00.