Balance Freedom Of Rights With Sense Of Responsibility

It has been 240 years since Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

And no Fourth of July is complete without our being grateful for their work and for the eloquent words of Thomas Jefferson, who penned most of the document.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Jefferson wrote, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

And what did Jefferson and the others believe those rights included? “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…”

The words have echoed down through the centuries, and in the American mind, they have almost been elevated to the level of a biblical passage.

When we teach children about rights, whether it is in our homes or in our schools, it is always fitting that we teach them to balance those rights with a great sense of responsibility.

Today’s young people need to understand the importance of this balance, so they will be properly equipped to take leadership later.

The rights articulated by America’s founding fathers, whether those in the Declaration of Independence or those in the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, have never worked in real life without being coupled with responsible living and respect for our fellow citizens. And they never will. All Americans have rights under the law, but no American is entitled to pursue any liberty to the point that it violates the right of another.

This notion is articulated in the Arkansas Constitution. It states, for example, that freedom of the press is a power that shouldn’t be misused: “… all persons may freely write and publish their sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right.”

That principle (that no one should abuse a right) applies to every right articulated in the Declaration and in the Constitution.

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he wrote of this idea, saying that freedom does not work alone.

“Freedom,” he wrote, “is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.” He went on to say that the Statue of Liberty on the east coast should be “supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

That would be a powerful symbol and would help communicate the balance that is needed in a free society.

Because America’s founding fathers understood that the majority of the populace was capable of responsible living, their ideals of freedom have worked very well.

Many Americans today do not understand the place of responsibility in life. Freedom is used as a license to offend others or to run roughshod over long-established traditions and beliefs.

If we don’t correct this as a country, if we don’t practice responsible living as citizens of this republic, then all of the rights that have been articulated will begin to unravel.

But all is not bleak. We still have the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, two of the most profound documents ever written in human history. And we still have a solid core of Americans who believe in those documents.

And we still have many people who believe strongly that we should love and care for our neighbors. With those things in place, even after 240 years, America can remain a strong beacon of hope, freedom, and responsibility.