Bill of Responsibilities.

[Siobhra]

With Rights come Responsibilities--As Americans, we must accept responsibility with the gift of security of our rights. As the Founding Fathers of our nation set down the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, to establish certain rights of American citizens, the Freedoms Foundation has outlined responsibilities of American citizens in a free society:

Preamble.

Freedom and responsibility are mutual and inseparable; we can ensure enjoyment of the one only by exercising the other. Freedom for all of us depends on responsibility by each of us.

To secure and expand our liberties, therefore, we accept these responsibilities as individual members of a free society:
1. To be fully responsible for our own actions and for the consequences of those actions. Freedom to choose carries with it the responsibility for our choices.

2. To respect the rights and beliefs of others. In a free society, diversity flourishes. Courtesy and consideration toward others are measures of a civilized society.

3. To give sympathy, understanding and help to others. As we hope others will help us when we are in need, we should help others when they are in need.

4. To do our best to meet our own and our families' needs. There is no personal freedom without economic freedom. By helping ourselves and those closest to us to become productive members of society, we contribute to the strength of the nation.

5. To respect and obey the laws. Laws are mutually accepted rules by which, together, we maintain a free society. Liberty itself is built on a foundation of law. That foundation provides an orderly process for changing laws. It also depends on our obeying laws once they have been freely adopted.

6. To respect the property of others, both private and public. No one has a right to what is not his or hers. The right to enjoy what is ours depends on our respecting the right of others to enjoy what is theirs.

7. To share with others our appreciation of the benefits and obligations of freedom. Freedom shared is freedom strengthened.

8. To participate constructively in the nation's political life. Democracy depends on an active citizenry. It depends equally on an informed citizenry.

9. To help freedom survive by assuming personal responsibility for its defense. Our nation cannot survive unless we defend it. Its security rests on the individual determination of each of us to help preserve it.

10. To respect the rights and to meet the responsibilities on which our liberty rests and our democracy depends. This is the essence of freedom. Maintaining it requires our common effort, all together and each individually.


Copyright ©1985 by Freedoms Foundation

[LittleRedToyota]

Originally Posted by Siobhra

Freedom and responsibility are mutual and inseparable;

very true. if people are not held responsible for their actions and for providing for themselves, no one can be free.

i find this topic to be fascinating on a philosophical level, so i am going to comment on the points raised. my apologies to those of you who do not like such philosophical discussions, but no one is making you read this

i really think only the first two responsibilities on the list are actually needed. people must be responsible for their own actions and must respect the rights of others. that's pretty much all you need. if everyone really did that...i mean really do it, not just paying lip service to it...we could have a truly free society with little else in the way of laws, regulations, or obligations.

the third point, imho, is not required to have a free society. it is something decent, moral human beings strive to do anyway, but i don't think it is actually required to have a free society.

the fourth point is actually covered by the first point since taking responsibility for your own actions (or inactions) includes taking responsibility for providing for yourself (and your family).

the fifth point would be totally unnecessary...as laws would be totally unnecessary...if everyone actually followed the first two points.

the sixth point is covered by the second point, since respecting other people's rights includes respecting their property rights.

points 7, 8, and 9 are noble causes, and, given the realities of the world, are necessary to long-term survival of freedom. however, again, if everyone actually followed the first two points, these would be totally unnecessary.

point 10 is just a recap.

anyway, i guess my point is that it would be so ridiculously simple for us all to live in a free and peaceful world if all human beings would simply follow the first two points...take responsbility for your own actions and respect the rights of others. that's it...that's all that's required.

of course, as simple as that is, it will never happen. kind of a sad commentary on our species.

[Siobhra]

I think they made 10 responsibilities because there are 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.

When I saw them at the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge they literally knocked me off my feet. I think when the country first got started people knew more about responsibilities. And maybe even looked at the Constitution as that.