The Constitution is one of the greatest documents, dare I say the greatest document ever created in the history of mankind. It has over time developed into the greatest achievement for civil rights on the globe and has enormous prowess in our country today. What I will do is have a weekly segment about The Constitution describing its effects around the globe and why we should not take these rights for granted. So I hope all of you enjoy as Mark Witherspoon, Christopher Wiebe and I, Bozin Cvetkovski, will describe The Constitution of The United States of America.

In the 1st United States Congress, following the state legislatures’ request, James Madison proposed twenty constitutional amendments, and his proposed draft of the First Amendment read as follows:

“The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed. The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.”

The First Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, was submitted to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, and adopted on December 15, 1791.

So here’s what the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does and wonderfully explains. It protects your right to worship whatever God you want and prevents Congress or any branch of the U.S. Government from establishing an official religion. You can as a citizen of the United States freely worship whichever God you want to worship and create any religion you want unless it harms yourself or others in the process. The U.S. government cannot impede on your right to worship religion period. This is extremely important because long ago the country had a major surplus in Protestants, who hated Catholics.

(Because many of the British colonists, such as the Puritans, were fleeing religious persecution, early American religious culture exhibited a more extreme anti-Catholic bias of these Protestant denominations, thus were Roman Catholics forbidden from holding public office. Monsignor Ellis wrote that a universal anti-Catholic bias was “vigorously cultivated in all the thirteen colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia” and that Colonial charters and laws contained specific proscriptions against Roman Catholics. Ellis also wrote that a common hatred of the Roman Catholic Church could unite Anglican clerics and Puritan ministers despite their differences and conflicts.) (Maryland was an exception to  this because it was founded to be a haven for Catholics). (Altogether, Protestants comprised the majority of the population until 2012 when the Protestant share of U.S. population dropped to 48%, thus ending its status as religion of the majority).So you can see the importance in this section of the the amendment.

( “nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.”) The next part explains that the government has to interpret words spoken as they are presented, and not bend their viewpoint to defame you. ( “nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.”

“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.” I feel this is by far the greatest section of the First Amendment because it’s the greatest way to express your right to Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness. The United States of America is the only country in the world that has undisputed free speech and we should not take that for granted. We have a responsibility and mandate to protect not limit what the founding fathers gave us. I believe that every form of speech should be protected even if it offends you. In the words of Ben Shapiro “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” I feel that if you don’t like what i’m writing then you have every right to not like it. Leave a comment so I know what you don’t like about the article. I feel that I have a lot to learn from classic Liberals and Conservatives alike so I can become a better person in the long run. Comedy right now is under attack. Comedy is the definition of expressing yourself in a way to make other people laugh. (Comedy according to Bing is a professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.) Being able to handle a joke that’s mildly offensive is key to being able to handle the real world. Just because you’re offensive on stage doesn’t mean you’re an offensive person. You’re only being racist and insensitive and offensive if you using those words in a racist and insensitive and offensive way. You should be able to understand context. If you point to countries in the West you’ll see that not every country has free speech protected under law. Compelled Speech is not free speech either. (Government should not pass laws forcing people to use certain words because that in itself is tyrannical) The UK  and Canada are an example of this because the laws they have passed have destroyed any utter notion of free speech the countries have had before.

UK: The UK does not have free speech because they can arrest anyone for making an  offensive joke. Such as the Youtuber Count Dankula (His real name is Mark Meechan. This man was a comedian in Scotland whose girlfriend had gotten a Pug last year. His girlfriend thought the pug was extremely cute which pugs are known to be in my opinion so her boyfriend (Count Dankula) thought of the least cute thing in the world a nazi. So he conditioned the pug (Which is ironically named Buddha) to salute like a Nazi. Was the joke in poor taste? That’s up to you to decide. What I do know is that was absolutely not hate speech. How can a joke that’s not used in a racial context be hate speech! Remember it’s all about context and if things are taken out of context then it’ll definitely spin out of control.  

The last part of the First Amendment allows for assembling of peaceful protests to petition the government against unlawful actions they make that limits our liberty. God Bless all of you for taking the time out of your day to read this article. It really means the world to me. I will be ending my Conservative Chronicles series and replacing it with the new Constitution Chronicles series so I do hope you guys have a wonderful day.

Sources:

“An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Act_to_amend_the_Canadian_Human_Rights_Act_and_the_Criminal_Code.

“First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution.

“History of Protestantism in the United States.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Protestantism_in_the_United_States.

Smith, Kyle. “Britain’s Joke War: The Pug and Count Dankula.” National Review, National Review, 22 Mar. 2018, www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/count-dankula-verdict-free-speech-dying-britain/.