Demand for
Rights
BOULDER, COLORADO
http://www.Teesdale.com
Following is the text of
the speech given by Robert Teesdale on Bill of Rights Day in Loveland, Colorado,
on December 15th, 2000.
Whether evolved or
created... regardless of our color or origin... there are fundamental and
integral aspects of being a human creature that cannot be taken away.
We each have a heart. A mind, and soul, which are forever private and sacred
between a human being and his God.
Regardless of your individual faith... and regardless of the doctrine it
preaches... your heart, your soul, and your mind are your own.
And the most basic premise of all faiths... of all philosophies... is the
shining pillar of free will.
Of freedom.
As human beings, we each have essential, inalienable rights. These rights are
not granted by human law. Nor are they mere privileges, tossed as pacifying
crumbs to a starving and beaten people by a ruler who surfs the waves of
rebellion.
Our rights are the very fabric and source of our human potential!
They are the gateways to our successes... to our joys, and to our very ability
to live and prosper.
They cannot be taken from us by priest or prince, by law or order. These rights
our Constitution recognizes are beyond the laws of Men.
They are the fundamental requirements of human dignity... and cannot be
destroyed or demolished.
They can only - with your permission - be trodden upon.
Two hundred and twenty five years ago a war - a real war - was fought, here, on
this soil of what we now call America.
This war was between men of power and men of principle... between the generals
of an empire and the obstinate farmers of a wild land.
It was a real war because the issues were real... the stakes were real... and
the blood and sorrow and hurting and destruction of the land were real.
Homes burned. Fathers watched their sons killed. Mothers wept.
Human pain and human tragedy bathed our land in their terrible embrace... in the
sacred hope that these desperate sacrifices and agonies could produce peace at
last for the greater human community that has suffered under the iron heel of
tyrants since time immemorial.
It saw men engaged in titanic struggle not merely to hold ground against
incoming fire... and not merely to control ports or cities or crossroads - but
ultimately, for the ownership of men's hearts... for the same lives and
liberties that we possess, here today.
For the rights of all men to rule their own souls.
It was the most striking overthrow of tyranny that the world had ever seen,
before or since.
The musket-fire at Lexington and Concord was indeed heard 'round the world - it
was heard in the halls of lords, in the work-houses of the poor, in the ears of
patriots and in the black, stinking, bottomless hearts of tyrants.
And it said, "The time has come."
No longer can the truth of human rights and freedom be denied!
No longer may men, born to rule, assume that their dominance is assured!
No longer may tyrants swagger bloodily across the stage of history without the
lingering fear that just perhaps - just maybe - America is watching with a cold
and terrible eye.
Today, America needs your eyes.
Our nation needs your passion.
Our rights - as blessed and sacred as they are - need your watchfulness to
survive!
Would you, fathers, want to raise your families without the right to defend
them?
Would you, mothers, wish to bear children who grow up as slaves?
Would any of us - free people, all - ever accept the insistent whine of those
who complain that rights are dangerous?
The choice we have is not between inflexibility and compromise.
It is not between commonsense restrictions and extremity.
It is not between smooth social order and obsolete ideas.
This is the very battle between freedom and tyranny that has been waged for
countless generations!
It is the pure and simple decision that each one of you must make, every day of
our lives.
Are you a human being?
Are you free?
Are you determined to stay that way?
Are you brave enough step forward, and demand those rights?
The words you speak today… and the actions you take… will determine whether
your own children are citizens of the Republic… or the exploited property of
the powerful.
You know what is at stake.
You know what is necessary.
Freedom is never easy. It is responsibility... it is power... and it is
dangerous.
But the alternative is unforgivable.
May God bless our Republic as we move forward into the new millennium. And may
God protect our people, and help us to preserve the foundation of our freedoms.
Thank you.
