The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire.
quote by Rick Santorum

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Dont You Think It's Time?
children have rights,
women have rights.
lovers have rights.
people of all religions,
and even atheists have rights.
people of all colors,
speaking every language have rights.
trees and rivers have rights.
cats and dogs have rights.
cattle have rights,
homeless people have rights.
prisoners have rights.
democrats and republicans have rights,
even socialists have rights.
the jobless have rights,
old people have rights...
and the hungry have
the right to be fed!
damnit! dont you think it's time?
poem by Eric Cockrell

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The idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.
Equal Rights,2011
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love.
equal rights to believe,
to speak out, to stand up
and be counted.
equal rights to work,
equal rights to study.
equal rights to build.
equal rights to profess faith,
equal rights to pray.
equal rights to give...
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.
quote by Thomas Sowell

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The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.
quote by Albert Gallatin

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I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe. Extremists typically want to squash not only those who disagree with them diametrically, but those who disagree with them at all. It seems to me that in every country where extremists of the left have gotten sufficiently in the saddle to squash the extremists of the right, they have ridden on to squash the center or terrorize it also. And the same goes for extremists of the right. I do not want that to happen in our country.
quote by Jane Jacobs

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Racism Poem - Where Racism matters
i live in a country
multi racial in nature
where certain communities
enjoy special rights
the politicians keep asking
why there is racial polarisation
well, if i have special rights
i will make sure i really
get the best deal of it all
i will not be a stupid fool
or even modest
no two way about it
that includes telling others
to be aware that they do
not have special rights
drawing the line doubly clear
just in case they
infringe on these rights
rights to everything special
housing, education,
medication, career advances
etc, etc, etc
and of course
i would make
every citizen aware
they are living in a society
where racism matters
because it is a matter
of life and death
for those with special rights
and of course for those
without the rights to
keep decently quiet about it
or else these special rights
could mean the rights
to take away things
dearest to them
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo

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Communities don't have rights. Only individuals in the community have rights.
quote by Michael Badnarik

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Note To The United States Of America!
we cannot be a nation proclaiming human rights,
without closing Guantanamo!
we cannot proclaim justice,
as long as money controls out courts.
we cannot proclaim freedom,
while invading other countries.
we cannot proclaim democracy,
as long as corporations have more
rights than individuals.
we cannot proclaim dignity,
while letting our children starve.
we cannot proclaim progress,
till all stand side by side with opportunity.
we cannot proclaim respect,
till all are equally respected.
we cannot proclaim spirituality,
until we live the words we speak.
we cannot proclaim peace,
until we come to peace with ourselves!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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This Heart
this heart churns love
this heart brews hatred
this heart houses my passions
my passions share a room with my disinterests
this heart manufactures aspirations
and later decides to go against them
this heart admires
this heart chastises
this heart misses you
and this very heart avoids letting that show
this heart longs for you
yet it doesn't want to be broken by you
this heart is a superwoman
juggling between east and west,
what's right and what's wrong,
reality and fantasies
and puts it all in perfect balance
poem by Stella Sisanda Qishi

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We Need Changes Now
The changes we need, for the most part, remain well hidden,
By the media or the Supreme Court, they are strongly forbidden,
Can’t even be discussed at elections because it’s never allowed,
To think about this, could put you under a human-rights cloud.
A provincial premier should be prime minister each year,
Not politicians trying to turn the top job into a career,
No parties claiming to have special parliamentary rights,
Votes in parliament should be by individuals – not party fights.
We need death with dignity and binding referendums to start,
Not a remote idea from some political bleeding heart,
We need proportional representation in every ward,
It should be the people – not the politicians – who scored.
(May 10th,2011)
poem by James Bredin

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A Carbon Copy
Rubbish, written rubbish
I can't show it to anyone I know
They'll get the wrong idea,
They'll think I am fatalistic,
A desperate soul...
(But isn't he clever!)
Too bad he can't control his thoughts
They should be more like ours
We are society, the community,
We dictate the acceptable attitude,
The right way to think and write...
But who-are we
But individuals, first
And finally individuals
Suffocating from individualism...
Or lack of it-...!
©All Rights Reserved-2010
poem by Romeo Della Valle

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I want to work on respecting individuals' dignity. Equal rights, that's where my heart is. That means equal rights and benefits, and that's what we need.
quote by Christine Gregoire

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How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men? In what possible way can the rights of three men absorb the rights of two men, and make them as if they had never existed.
quote by Auberon Herbert

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As man is so constituted that it is utterly impossible for him to attain happiness save by seeking the happiness of others, so does it seem to be of the nature of things that individuals and classes can obtain their own just rights only by struggling for the rights of others.
quote by Henry George

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Get Up, Stand Up
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Dont give up the fight! (life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (so we cant give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord!)
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on!)
Dont give up the fight! (yeah!)
We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Dont give up the fight! (dont give it up, dont give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Dont give up the fight! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Dont give up the fight! /fadeout/
song performed by by Bob Marley

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Similarly, the problem of the rights of the state in the disposition of inheritances left by individuals presents social aspects of the first importance.
quote by Rene Cassin

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The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to ""create"" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.
quote by William J. Brennan, Jr.

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There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.
quote by Frances Wright

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Girls Have Rights Too
Girls must have the undeniable rights to speak,
And the God-given rights to choose and pick.
Girls must have the rights to be educated,
To be respected and to be protected.
Girls are human beings too;
Girls must have all the rights too.
Girls must have the rights to fight
For respect, comfort and decency.
Girls like boys are bright,
Girls must be able to taste the fruit of equality.
Girls are people too,
Girls are wonderful too.
Education is the light at the end of the tunnel,
And ignorance is the moon at the bottom of the funnel.
Education is the hope that triggers better opportunities,
It is also the antidote that defeats all sorts of disease.
Therefore, girls must have the rights to be educated,
To be protected and to be respected.
poem by Hebert Logerie

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