There has been a lot of discussion lately about rights. This discussion has centered mainly around the COVID virus and efforts to stem its spread. Rights have been referred to as political rights, constitutional rights, God-given rights or just plain rights. The most heated rights discussion seems to be concerned with mandated vaccinations.

To better participate in these discussions it is helpful to have a clear understanding of rights, what they are and how they come about. If a person lives in complete isolation he (I’m using the masculine to include all genders known and yet to be invented) can do anything he wants to do. No one is there to object. That person has an absolute right. Introduce a neighbor and our person’s absolute right is no longer absolute. He has to take into account his new neighbor’s rights. Extend this scenario to large cities and the need for government with its laws and regulations becomes readily apparent.

When our founding fathers enacted and adopted our Constitution, they very quickly also adopted 10 amendments. These 10 amendments prohibit the federal government from interfering with certain basic rights of its citizens. The 14th amendment extends this prohibition to the states and the governing entities within the states. The Supreme Court is charged with the duty to decide if a governmental entity is attempting to do something which the Constitution prohibits it from doing. I believe that the Supreme Court will soon be called upon to decide if a governmental entity can require a citizen to allow that entity to inject a foreign substance into his body under threat of punishment. We shall see!

Sig Siefkes

Baker City