"There is a place for government in the affairs of men, and
our Declaration of Independence tells us precisely what that place is.
The role of government is to protect individuals in their God-given
individual rights. Freedom is the natural birthright of man, but all
that government can do in behalf of freedom is to let the individual alone,
and it should secure him in his rights by making others let him alone."
by:
Rev. Edmund A. Opitz
(1914-2006) American minister, author
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 -- Mike, Norwalk      
 -- Mike, Norwalk      
I couldn't have said it better, thank God for our Republic!
 -- Logan, Memphis, TN     
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    If this doesn't sum it up, then nothing will.This quote is about as perfect as it can get. Would that that criminal bunch in Washington would take this to heart. Not much chance, I fear.
     -- jim kilpatrick, austin, tx     
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    If only ...!
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Perfect, with the minor exception of the word "God-given"
     -- RobertSRQ     
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    O so Robert you think that rights are given by man?
     -- warren, olathe     
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    How about 'natural born' or 'innate'?  The point is that you are born with your natural rights, they are not granted by anyone, not even yourself.  A right cannot be given, it already is, and cannot be taken away.  An American remembers and is empowered by this self-evident fact.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    The DOI was put into mothballs in 1789 and should have been left there. We live under an express contract, Lockean in it's Bill of Rights and common law, Hobbesian in it's Civil Law. The DOI has been misrepresented since the Dred Scott Case.
     -- Don Lee, RENO     
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    God given because rights have consequences promised by holy writ, expressed that man should protect them with organized govt. Nature's God. Mises covered the problem with modernists taking God out of the equation, ie Marx, 
     -- Don Lee, RENO     
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