On November 8th, 2020, Governor Gary Herbert of Utah, issued a state wide mask mandate, and issued a state of emergency because of a rise in COVID-19 cases.  In many ways this order took away your right of assembly.  This situation brings to mind the question, how far can they go before they stop?  The answer to this question is when you put a stop to it.  This is the government by the people, for the people, of the people.  Some people believe that they don’t need to stop this, and would welcome tyranny, while still others think that the government should not infringe on our rights.  The U.S. and its state’s governments cannot infringe on your inalienable rights because of these three reasons. Your inalienable rights are protected by the constitution and upheld by the declaration, your inalienable rights are given by God, and without your inalienable rights this nation would end up like the Roman Republic.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up a little freedom to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  In these modern times, people are forgetting that your fore-fathers fought for your freedom, and protected ouryour rights in the Constitution.  Amendment 1 of the U.S. Constitution says that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”   The founders determined that protection of the freedom of speech, religion, press, and the rights of assembly and petition, were some of the most important rights, hence they put them in the first amendment.  In the Declaration of Independence it says, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” 

The words most Americans know by heart, “I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  God and nation, indivisible. This nation has slowly left those words that were added in 1892 and 1954.  As Ben Franklin said, “If a sparrow cannot fall without God’s notice, is it probable that a nation can rise without his aid?”  This nation was created with God’s aid, and without His aid it would have never made it this far.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  The Declaration recognizes the aid of God, and unalienable rights, that government was created to protect.  

Charles Didier taught that, “the New Morality has been tearing down and replacing the accumulated wisdom of Western Civilization. The cherished ideals and standards of proper behavior were, it was said, outmoded nuisances that had to go.”  Among these “nuisances” are our inalienable rights.  

The Romans also decided to trade their freedom for temporary safety and tyranny.  In the book Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, he says, “society of equal laws, governed by equality of status and of speech, and of rules who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else.”  The more you remember your rights, and work to uphold them it will be less likely to find yourself overthrown by a tyrant. Edward Gibbons said that, “If the empire had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked the divine justice.”  The Romans fell because they forgot their past and how their forefathers fought to protect their freedoms.  

Some people may believe that the US Government can infringe on our inalienable rights in times of emergency, such as now. This is inadequate because inalienable rights are for individuals and groups and because those that would give up their freedom for a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Still others may think that the government was put in place to rule over you and hence they have the power to do things that take away your inalienable rights.  According to The Law, by Bastiat, “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.” Hence it cannot be justified that the government was put in place to take away your rights, and the conclusion must be made that the government was put in place to protect them.  Despite what others may think, without your actions, the government will slowly be taken over by tyrants and this great nation will end up fallen, like Rome.