Editor,
The title of the article about Constitution Day last Monday suggested this mandatory observance was unnecessary or an imposition merely forced upon us. Furthermore, quoting Professor Kierst saying our Constitution was not created to protect minority rights seemed to downplay its importance. In fact, our Constitution is the fundamental rule of law that protects us in everything we do.
Although I would agree it is more about individual rights than those of any particular group, I cannot agree with Kierst's claim that our rights are inherent. The professor was probably thinking of our Declaration of Independence, a separate document issued five years earlier, which says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." This line is often used to support the idea that we have certain God-given rights. That would imply we have rights just because we are human - or believers.
If that were the case, why did it take more than 70 years for African-Americans to be freed from slavery, and 130 years under the new government for women to be granted the right to vote? It took another 100 years for African-Americans to obtain any degree of civil rights. If God hands out rights, he sure didn't give any to Native Americans during our frontier days.
Some people still do not feel the benefits of full civil rights, including atheists, who struggle to gain even one political office. Consider this radical ethical assumption: there are no human rights, only the civil rights we win from our leaders.
The authors of the Declaration of Independence, being predominantly Christian, were also good politicians, and they knew appealing to God would stir emotions for their cause. The Revolution was a noble example of humans under heavy taxation fighting to the death for their civil rights.
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If the God of the Bible does not exist, then we would have no basis for our rights without a Constitution and the laws that flow from it. That makes such a document even more important.
Ron Herman
UNM graduate student
