ALL of our rights are important. Why do people only worry about one or two of them?

" Certain commenters on this post disparaged the Moral Monday demonstrators, and mocked them for being concerned about their voting rights being taken away. These same commenters were themselves all a-flutter about their religious or gun rights being taken away, and weren’t concerned about their own voting rights.

In reality, all of our rights are important, and any infringement of them needs to be taken seriously. And there are those who would thus infringe upon them, based on class, color or creed. While you are focused on one right, your others can be watered down or taken away entirely, like a carnival magician’s sleight of hand: distracting you with his left, and tricking you with his right.

Back during the reign of Bush the Lesser, it was our First, Fourth and Fifth amendment rights that they tried to take away (speech, privacy, and presumption of innocence). The Bushistas herded demonstrators into “free speech zones”, thereby rendering the rest of the nation to be NOT subject to our Constitutional right to free speech; imposed warrantless wiretaps and arrested people without probable cause; and even tried to take away our rights to a trial by a jury of our peers. The gun nutters paid no attention to these crimes, concerning themselves only with their right to keep and bear arms.

Under the Obama administration, most of these rights were restored at the Federal level. However, the Red states have been busily taking away the rights of likely Blue voters via legislation and gerrymandering. And various Fundagelical Teabaggers are trying to take away our individual religious rights by substituting a government-sanctioned “Christian” faith.

The loss of any of our rights is cause for concern, regardless of how unimportant it might seem in comparison with other rights. So let us all join together and support each other in this noble pursuit. As the man said, “if we do not hang together, we shall all surely hang separately”."