How many sections of the Bill of Rights are you willing to give up?

How many sections of the Bill of Rights would you be willing to let go by the wayside?  I would imagine for most of you that answer would be, zero.  I would also EXPECT for you "TeaBaggers" that answer would also be zero, since you seem to place so much stake in a 200+ year old document.

So you want to make it illegal to protest at funerals?  I agree.  I believe those individuals representing the church should be punished.  Those young soldiers families have lost something they can never get back.

But how?

How do you punish those people without infringing on the bill of rights?  Without violating "Freedom of Speech"?  Our founding fathers realized that is was not "safe" speech that needed to be protected.  Safe speech is generally tolerated and therefore we don't really talk much about it.  Speech that needs to be protected is that which most or all of us would find UN-tolerable.  If there were no speech that the general population found disagreeable there would be no need for the First Amendment.  I know what your saying, you don't care, they should be punished.  Well let me ask you, if they are punished, if their Freedom of Speech is violated, what next?  That freedom is something afforded to all of us, something we all enjoy, something we also have to pay for and in some cases, this in particular, that payment can be completely heart-breaking.

Another one in recent news is the story about the potential Mosque to be built near Ground Zero.  First a little of my opinion, is it in bad taste? Yes.  Will it cause problems? Yes.  Do all Muslims agree with it being built there? No.  Many Muslims also agree that it is in bad taste.  But there is more to this story than you will ever hear on Fox News.  There are no less than 13 locations around the country where Muslims are being denied the right to construct Mosques.  Is this one at Ground Zero a way to bring that to light?  I don't know, but I think it would be a good start.

So suppose Muslims are denied the permits and permissions to build at Ground Zero.  Also ponder if they should be denied to build in other locations around the country?  Think about how many Christian Churches are on or near land deemed "Sacred" by Native Americans and ask, are we being fair?  Are we making this decision because we are able to detach from the situation and really look at this analytically?  Or are we acting on what suits us and our principles even though others may not share that same idea?

After you've had a moment to ponder these things, ask yourself one more time, do I want to give up my right to Freedom of Religion?  Most of us have no idea what it is like to be persecuted for our religions, at least not in the Untied States so we really don't have a point of departure to fully engage in this type of issue and really understand how the person sitting across the table feels. 

If we just make a law that denies them the right to build, how will that law apply to non-Muslims?  Will Muslims and non-Muslims both lose?  I think they will.

Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the rest of the Fox cronies and Tea Baggers alike are always talking about us losing our freedoms, but think about what I've said and think about what freedoms you're willing to just throw away without really thinking about what the true cost of that momentary victory will be.