Frequently, these days, it is common to hear self-appointed, political experts argue in the media that recall elections are wrong! According to them, governors and other elected officials should be allowed to serve their full term -- even in the cases when there is overwhelming evidence that their doing crummy jobs!
I printed below the specific section of the second paragraph of The Declaration of Independence. It is the passage I always think about whenever I hear these arguments. For it seems to me that somewhere along the evolution of this great country, we have forgotten that governors and other elected officials are the chief executive officers and section managers of the corporations known as "governments," but the citizens are the stockholders. Their jobs are to perform in accordance with the visions and needs made necessary by our unalienable rights. It isn't the other way around: It isn't our job to serve them by performing according to their wishes and ambitions!
The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776.An excerpt from the second paragraph"
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
James Madison, so strongly felt the need to insure that all Americans understood that their "unalienable Rights" included all other rights granted by God -- in addition to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, that he specifically wrote the 9th Amendment in the Bill of Rights for the sole purpose of clarifying and underscoring this point:
AMENDMENT IX (1791)
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
by
James A. Porter
