The Bill of Wrongs

He clears his throat and begins to read. His nerves overtake him as he proposes an idea that will soon change America the Beautiful. Little did he know that two hundred and twenty-four years from that moment, there would be little respect for the words coming out of his mouth. His name was James Madison, the founding father behind the Bill of Rights.

In 1789, he stood up at a meeting with First Congress to defend the rights of the American people. However, that was in 1789, a time when you could walk down the street and genuinely smile because you could leave your house without being accused of some random criminal act.

This is 2013. We can barely own a water pistol without being accused. The second amendment states, “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Well, I hate to break it to whomever may be reading this, but that right has and will continue to be infringed. America is a beautiful, astounding nation. The land we live in now is the complete opposite.

We are not citizens of “America” anymore. By our founding fathers’ definition, America is “one nation under God” and “free”.

Everywhere you look, madness is in the midst of erupting. There are people hurting each other. There are criminals getting away with more and more because authorities are too distracted blaming innocent people to punish the ones doing the crime. There are law-abiding, gun-owning citizens being interrogated and being forced to sacrifice their second amendment rights.

This nation is harping on past tragedies, yet neglecting what it has stood for since that bill was proposed before First Congress. The roots of this great land have hit a concrete block.

People blame the psychotic Newtown shooter for all of this, but perhaps we should be pointing our fingers at an incompetent, oblivious government.

The second amendment is not the only victim of infringement, but our first amendment is also suffering from being neglected.

Every week, we hear stories of someone who tried to voice their opinion and ended up on the chopping block for it. According to our beloved Constitution, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” However, who are we to question the reality that is becoming more clear right in front of us?

The cold, hard truth is that America’s arms are repressed by metaphorical ropes and her mouth is hidden behind hypothetical duct tape.

Who do you think is her captor? What could be done to end this war between freedom and oppression?

What generations before us have called “The Bill of Rights” has now transformed into “The Bill of Wrongs”, and the people we would expect to prevent that from happening are the very root of the cause.