Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
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The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
That's what the Senate is about. It's the last bastion of minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he falls into the dust.
quote by Robert Byrd
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Minority Government
The wise are in minority.
The rulers are in minority
Rogues too are in minority.
So are captains and militants.
Teachers are in minority.
Bishops are in minority.
Juries too are minority.
So are smugglers and the rich.
Americans are in minority.
Human beings are in minority.
Minority rules the majority.
Minority rides the majority.
Majority yields to minority.
Majority fears the minority,
And loves to play the role of drudgery.
The sign of majority is slavery
23.09.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.
quote by David Boies
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Public Safety
You have no 'constitutional' rights,
To police protection.
The police are there to uphold the 'law'.
Public safety...
That's all!
And 'if' it has been determined,
That 'law' has been broken...
Guess who is going to jail?
That is certain.
Those 'laws' will prevail!
People yelling, 'Protect me and mine! '
Will find themselves ignored,
Most of the time!
Police are trained to deal with you psychologically...
However,
Your individual needs...
Are not theirs to feed!
Your rights to protect yourself is best.
And that's why the streets are full of such unrest!
IF you have problems with this as it is...
Know what those laws are!
And why crime has risen...
Bringing folks to tears.
And your individual feelings,
Are not part of constitutional business!
You have no 'constitutional' rights,
To police protection.
The police are there to uphold the 'law'.
Public safety...
That's all!
And your taxes 'may' be used,
To fill a pothole!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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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 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
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My office has been one of the most scrupulous in the country with regard to the protection of individual rights. I've been on record for years in law journals and books as championing the rights of the individual against the oppressive power of the state.
quote by Jim Garrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Majesty of the majority
The arrogance of the majority
Kills the freedom of the minority.
The authority of the majority
Checks the progress of the minority.
The humility of the majority
Tends the growth of the minority
The majesty of the majority
Grants the safety of the minority
Let the Babaar majid be rebuilt.
[The majid was an unused mosque built centuries ago in the place of a Hindu temple, and was destructed by the Hindu faith people giving a shock to the country’s secularism]
11.01.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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My belief has always been ... that wherever in this land any individual's constitutional rights are being unjustly denied, it is the obligation of the federal government-at point of bayonet if necessary-to restore that individual's constitutional rights.
quote by Ronald Reagan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to protect his own rights American civilization will teach him to respect the rights of others.
quote by William Jennings Bryan
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Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to protect his own rights; American civilization will teach him to respect the rights of others.
quote by William Jennings Bryan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
quote by James Madison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What is a minority The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world.
quote by John Ballantine Gough
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Historically, the judicial branch has often been the sole protector of the rights of minority groups against the will of the popular majority.
quote by Diane Watson
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When you put a tiny and despised minority up for a popular vote, the minority usually loses.
quote by Andrew Sullivan
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I love the ACLU and I'm concerned now, especially when it comes to our rights, with current politics and the religious community and the Conservative majority or minority - I don't know who they are.
quote by Debbie Harry
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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On Torture We Should Not Keep Our Silence
In many so called Democratic Countries Human Rights laws are being transgressed
And people due to their difference from others are imprisoned and oppressed
And suffer the worst forms of torture should we in silence stand idly by
For a wrong against any individual is a wrong against you and I.
A loss of Human rights to any individual is a loss of rights to all
The huge plague of locusts destroyed the grain crops though their numbers once were small
And like the locusts those who go along with torture their numbers multiply
But on such a matter for me to keep my silence would be to live a lie.
On torture we should not keep our silence 'tis time we made a stand
I've got a lethal weapon here the pen is in my hand
I may not command much power but to my own self I must be true
For if you do not speak out against torture you become a torturer too.
In many so called Democratic Countries Governments to torture turn a blind eye
And people due to torture have even been known to die
And those who keep their silence on such a matter are saying
torture is okay
Though a loss of rights to one individual is a loss of rights to all or to me 'twould seem that way.
poem by Francis Duggan
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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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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