<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: separate; font: 16px 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.theoakinitiative.org/oak-leaf-18"><img src="images/stories/OAKI-logo.png" border="0" align="left" /></a>An ongoing argument over modern political and social issues centers on whether the U.S. Constitution is relevant in today’s world. With all the advancements in technology, communication, transportation, commerce, and in the medical field, some argue that the Founding Fathers could not have foreseen what would be necessary for the United States to remain a healthy society 224 years in the future.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    Such arguments are generally connected to an agenda for social entitlement and the redistribution of wealth. The original intent of the U.S. Constitution stands in the way of advancing their agenda.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    In spite of arguments over our Constitution’s modern relevance, the Founding Fathers did consider our constitutional republic form of government in an advancing world of diverse breakthroughs. For example, Benjamin Franklin articulated how quickly the world could change based on inventions and personally proved it with the success of his own creative experiments.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    Yet, when forming the Constitution, the framers did NOT construct its survival based on any advancement in technologies or society. They wrote the restrictive forces of the Constitution on something far more predictable…the heart of man. They understood that times would change, and that breakthroughs would come in many forms and on many levels. They therefore constructed the Constitution on one thing that they knew would not change, and that is human nature.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    The U.S. Constitution is relevant today because a person or a group of people will just as quickly oppress a culture in 2011 as they would in the 1780s. The Constitution is NOT built in a way to ensure people’s rights to access future provisions, but to protect people in any time period from the ruthlessness and oppressive nature of both individuals and governments. </p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    If we continue to eradicate and corrode the authority and restraints of the U.S. Constitution, regardless of our justifications and reasons, then we will fall under the tyrannical control of a leader or an oppressive government. The lessons of both ancient and modern history guarantee this.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    Thomas Jefferson said, "<em style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution</em>". That is what the Constitution is really about. It gives freedom from oppression by those in authority. When people say that our Constitution is obsolete based on current world circumstances, then they are usually ignorant of its genius and function.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">     When we get into discussion with people regarding the modern relevance of the U.S. Constitution in regards to the needs of the American citizen, then we need to know how to respond intelligently. Many of the advancing ideologies people argue are based more in socialism than liberty. They tend to advocate that every human has a right to a job, a home, health insurance, home internet access, equal pay and benefits, and the list goes on.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    These are NOT unalienable rights, nor is it what Americans supported and fought for in the late 1700s. To be clear, unalienable rights are rights that are unable to be alienated, given up, or transferred to someone else. They come from God, and no man or government can rightly give them or take them away. Some examples of unalienable rights are life; liberty; self-government; to bear arms; to purchase, develop and dispose of property; make personal choices; free conscience; choice of profession; choice of a mate; to assemble; to petition; to free speech; to a free press; to the fruits of one’s labor; to privacy; to provide personal security; to a fair trial; of free association; and to contract.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    The Constitution guarantees citizens the right to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">equal opportunities</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to pursue and establish a better lifestyle, not the right to that lifestyle without personal effort and investment. Today, our Constitution is under attack more than ever. If we do not have a restoration of Constitutional authority and restraint upon our government, then our children and grandchildren will not only be poor… they will be oppressed.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">    Remember that we the people are the authority in America. We only lend our authority to representatives and to our government. We must continue to educate ourselves on the truth and stand for what is right.</p>
<p style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-shadow: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.theoakinitiative.org/oak-leaf-18">Goto The Oak Initiative&gt;&gt;&gt;</a></p>
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