A divine spark burns in each of us, waiting to ignite the light of wisdom and human fulfillment.
The spark will wither and die if we are denied the freedom to think and speak and express ourselves as our consciences dictate, unfettered by fear of government retaliation.
This is not my idea, nor is it a revolutionary idea. Neither was it completely new to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, John Adams and George Washington when they molded it into a sustainable framework for freedom in 1787 by writing the constitution and in 1789 when Madison wrote the Bill of Rights.
Madison and his colleagues turned the course of human events on its head. Before the First Amendment, no other nation recognized that individuals possessed so much power to govern their own lives.
Until that point, most rulers claimed a divine right to control how their subjects thought, believed, lived and died.
Our First Amendment, in delicate balance with the other amendments and the Constitution, puts us in charge of our individual destinies – personal, political, economic and spiritual. No longer were we subjects of those who presumed power to themselves through wealth or might.
If that’s not a good thing, I don’t know what is.
Read the rest on the Jacksonville Daily Record.