{"id":192,"date":"2006-05-21T14:14:40","date_gmt":"2006-05-21T19:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/05\/21\/what-rights-are-left\/"},"modified":"2006-05-21T21:41:48","modified_gmt":"2006-05-22T02:41:48","slug":"when-rights-are-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/when-rights-are-left\/","title":{"rendered":"When rights are left"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of the definition of a right — a human right, a civil right (aren’t those interchangeable?) — is that they’re unalienable [or inalienable]<\/small>, to borrow and twist an independent, declarable phrase. Yet Alberto Gonzales the attorney general of the United States said on ABC’s “This Week”<\/a> today there is some flex to the First Amendment right of a free press:<\/p>\n

The attorney general reiterated that the rights of a free press cannot trump national security but added, “I understand very much the role the press plays in our society.” When asked whether journalists should be prosecuted for publishing classified material, Gonzales answered, “It depends on the circumstances. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We have an obligation to make sure the people are protected.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is hard to disagree with, until you sort it out, until you recall how recent and historic events show how fast-spreading the exceptions to rights can be and how the free flow of news and opinion invariably strengthens democracy. Security is not the be-all and end-all in a republic, even though the voting majority thinks so; freedom is (constitutional, responsible freedom, of course).<\/p>\n

Then again, freedom of speech as also guaranteed in the First Amendment includes boos and hisses, but at a high school graduation, that’s plain rude, as well as a bad lesson for still-impressionable 18-year-olds. That happened in my occasionally liberal city yesterday, as reported in the Northwest Arkansas Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

As [teacher Robert] Neralich challenged students to question controversial issues such as immigration, oil prices and economy, audience members showed mixed emotions. While most offered supportive applause, others shouted for Neralich to get off the stage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you imagine? The Fayetteville Morning News<\/em> reported that Neralich has been student-selected speaker 11 of the last 12 years.<\/p>\n

If rights are unalienable, only aliens will have rights. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of the definition of a right — a human right, a civil right (aren’t those interchangeable?) — is that they’re unalienable [or inalienable], to borrow and twist an independent, declarable phrase. Yet Alberto Gonzales the attorney general of the United States said on ABC’s “This Week” today there is some flex to the First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/merge-merge-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":0},"title":"Merge, Merge Left","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"WASHINGTON (Wire Services)\u2014 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday, driven from office after a standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence. 'I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father\u2019s best days,' said Gonzales, the son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/05\/dash-it-ashcroft\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":1},"title":"Dash it, Ashcroft","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know about you, but when I was growing up during the first administration of the second Bush, I was taught that John Ashcroft was the anti-attorney general. Both his foes and his supporters seemed to agree that he was a proud religious-right zealot in terms of God-first, Constitution-maybe,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":497,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/mallets-reforethought\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":2},"title":"Mallets Reforethought","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The story of the June 14, 1986, croquet match played by former Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark was so memorable to me I did not bother to check the facts when I summarized it last week. I had documents, I kept them in a file -- a real manila paper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/croquet-0686-lg-res-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/separation-of-church-press\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":3},"title":"Separation of church, press","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Constitutional separation of church and press Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Monday, July 26, 2004: I want to toss an endorsement to the defense of the First Baptist Church of Springdale and its senior pastor, Ronnie Floyd. An self-proclaimed do-gooder group is trying to sic the IRS against them, citing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":155,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/multiple-choice\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":4},"title":"Multiple choice","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, February 11, 2005: One from Column A and one from Column B. Let's play! ASSOCIATED PRESS -- North Korea declared itself a de facto nuclear power Thursday, claiming in its strongest terms to date that it had \"manufactured nuclear weapons\" to defend itself from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/07\/our-constitutions-bill-of-goods\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":5},"title":"Our Constitution’s Bill of Goods","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Wouldn't be a lot easier for President Bush and the current Congress to begin the process to repeal the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights? Bet it wouldn't take too long to get the votes their way. Think of how many birds they'd drop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}