Know your rights

What separates the U.S. from the rest of the world? It is, theoretically, our rights, those freedoms our government both simultaneously tries to restrict (can you say Patriot Act? Go ahead, try.) and waves in our face as justification for a foreign policy so reprehensible I often wonder if it wasn’t written by someone named Attila or Alexander.

So, what are these much vaunted rights? Given that a Zogby poll back in August found that just 24 percent of Americans could name two United States Supreme Court justices, while 77 percent could name two of Snow White’s seven dwarfs, I’m willing to bet that a lot of us (myself included) can’t name all 10 of the Amendments (you did know it was 10, right?) in the Bill of Rights.

Digest these facts about the Bill of rights:

• The Bill of Rights was ratified December 15, 1791.
• Congress adopted twelve amendments, of which only ten were ratified by the states by 1791.
• Over 200 years later, one more of the original twelve, concerning compensation for Congress was ratified on May 7, 1992, becoming the Twenty-Seventh Amendment.
• James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights and was inspired, in part, by the Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason.
• The Bill of Rights initially applied only to the federal government; however, the Supreme Court, through the Fourteenth Amendment, has incorporated some portions to apply to the states.
• Only 17 amendments have been ratified since the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

And if you’re living in the U.S (yes, they apply to resident aliens too) see how many you can remember then go take a look to find out how close you were.

Why is all this important? Because if BushCo. is going to continue to try to rob us we need to know if what they’re trying to take is worth fighting for or if we can just let it go.