Rights

I keep hearing about this "war on women" that conservatives (like myself) are waging. And it gets me a little flustered. I am a woman and a conservative and I don't feel like any part of me is waging war against any other part of me.

Which gets me onto another subject: Rights.

While I agree that women have a right to use birth control, should they want to, I don't feel they have a right to it as professed by many loud liberals lately. (alteration much?)

A right to life doesn't mean the government is responsible with providing your life, a right to happiness does not mean the government needs to make you happy. A right to arms does not mean the government must give you a gun on your 18th birthday. So why is that people today think that a right to food/birth control/jobs/healthcare means that the government should be providing it for you?

A right is something the government cannot take away, a right is something that should you desire, it is within your power, through your effort, to obtain. I have the right to free speech, should I choose to clam up and live in solitude never uttering another word to another person I still have that right, though I don't have to exercise it.

People seem to think something more is owed to them simply for existing, and that it is the government's job to provide it if they cannot/will not get it themselves. A co-worker of Dan's complained that her meth using son could not (while using) provide for his food or food for his children, stating food is a right and they should be able to get it from the government.

Food is a right? Well, yes, government has no place denying you food, but they have no responsibility to provide it for you either. Individuals are welcome to help one another, and I don't have an issue with providing temporary aid to tax paying citizen who may fall on hard times, the key here is "temporary". Generations on welfare are a sure sign of national and governmental failure that spans decades.

As a nation we are giving up our responsibilities to ourselves and our families in favor of these so called "rights". But to get those rights, we must give up those that truly matter. I for one do not enjoy the idea of giving up my right to liberty in favor of a government hand out.