"Freedom in Chains"
by James Brovard

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Lady Liberty encourages you to get involved:

The Bill of Rights
actually consists of the first ten admendments to the U.S. Constitution. These ten amendments, ratified in 1791, were quickly appended to the Constitution by the framers so as to clarify that they considered certain rights inlienable, and that those rights were, in particular, not to be infringed upon by the government. To hedge their bets even further, the Ninth Amendment was written so as to let everyone know - government official and citizen alike - that just because a right isn't specifically mentioned doesn't mean it's not a right held by the people.

The Bill of Rights
can be seen in its original form online at the website of the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States. The document can be read online as well (preamble, amendments 1-10), also courtesy of the National Archives. Although not a part of the Bill of Rights, as it is called, there are additional amendments to the Constitution. You can read these amendments online (amendments 11-27), again courtesy of the National Archives. A searchable Constitution and Bill of Rights is available online at the Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet website.

To take advantage of Lady Liberty's Bill of Rights pages,
each labeled button at the left will connect you to a page dealing with that specific amendment. On each of those pages, you can read the text of the amendment, review current news related to that amendment, and access links to amendment-specific websites.

Please take note
of the fact that Lady Liberty has added one right to her listings for the Bill of Rights: The right to privacy. While not specifically delineated within either the Constitution or the Bill of Rights (court decisions have been made concerning privacy based on the Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments), the right to privacy may be the single most important of all rights for free people, and encroachments on privacy by government are often the beginning of the end of real liberty. Many among the judiciary, as well as most Constitutional scholars, believe the right to privacy is implied throughout the founding documents, and some important court decisions have been made based on the constitutionally protected right to privacy.

Educate yourself concerning the rights protected by both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Keep up to date on current events effecting those rights, and take action as needed to protect your liberties (read Lady Liberty's "In the News Now" every day, consider signing up for Lady Liberty's Action Alerts for notification concerning specific threats to freedom and suggestions for actions you can take).

Keep tabs on your local schools and be sure your kids are being taught an accurate history of, and their responsibility for, their heritage of freedom. If they're not - or if they're being taught revisionist history - get involved with your local School Board to correct the curriculum (many public schools, for example, currently omit the Second Amendment all together from their Bill of Rights courses, and some teach that United Nations regulations supercede the US Constitution and Bill of Rights).

Work to educate others as concerns their civil rights. Refer them to this website, or to many of the other resources available on the Internet. Get and read a good American history book and then pass it along (Lady Liberty recommends Powells.com for online book purchases).

Read the Freedom Pledge, and take its words to heart.

Register to vote, and then VOTE. Although a single vote in larger elections may or may not make a difference, voting most assuredly matters at the local and even state levels. And what happens in local and state politics does have a bearing on federal decision-making!

Participate in activities that support freedom (check out Lady Liberty's Events listings for starters).

Don't cooperate with the infringement of your liberties. Don't permit a warrantless search of your property or travel through sobriety checkpoints (the innocent are entitled to Constitutional protections, too) or offer private information freely (your Social Security number to your grocery store, for example, or the fact that you own firearms to your doctor).

"The Freedom Pledge" was created by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe for Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

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