Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich on come back to the truths of the Declaration of Independence
By: Newt Gingrich
Examiner Columnist
July 3, 2009
Just in time for Independence Day, the Supreme Court has come out with a decision that forces supporters of racial and ethnic quotas to reacquaint themselves with the truths of our nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.
In Ricci v. DeStafano, the high court ruled that the City of New Haven Connecticut was wrong to deny a promotion to firefighter Frank Ricci on the basis of his race. Ricci, who is white, quit his second job and studied 13 hours a day to pass a test for promotion within the fire department. But because no African-Americans scored high enough on the test to be promoted, the powers-that-be in New Haven tossed out the scores and promoted no one.
The Supreme Court said this was wrong and thus dealt a stiff blow to those who would respond to the question, “Where do our rights come from?” with the answer, “Government.”
When you believe that government is the source of rights, government – even government with “empathy” – is perfectly justified in denying the equality of its subjects. It can treat someone like Frank Ricci differently on the basis of his race or ethnicity because Frank Ricci and every other person living under that government has no more and no less dignity, responsibility and worth than government decides to grant them.
But the United States of America is not that kind of country.
Despite the best efforts of the elite media to portray it as one, the source of our rights as Americans is not a theological or religious question. It is a fundamental question of political history.
If you go to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., you will find the Declaration of Independence, a political document. It says men and women are “endowed by their Creator will certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This sentence is the fundamental fact of America. We are the only nation in history that proclaims that our fundamental rights come from God – our “creator” – directly to us as citizens. We loan the government power to enforce the law. But our individual sovereignty means that we are all equal before the law.
This is why slavery was such a grave injustice. It’s why quotas and the identity politics espoused by jurists like Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are wrong. And it’s why government rationing health care is wrong.
No government bureaucrat has the right to take from you the rights that God gave you. Rationing healthcare is inevitably limiting your life at the whim of a bureaucrat or the manipulation of a politician.
Even with the best of intentions, judges, politicians and bureaucrats who disregard the rule of law violate the fundamental rights of Americans as granted by our Creator.
In his opinion supporting the majority in the Ricci case, Justice Samuel Alito noted that the minority of justices who ruled against Frank Ricci conceded that Ricci and the other firefighters denied promotion on the basis of their race “understandably attract this Court’s sympathy.”
To which Alito responded, “’sympathy’ is not what petitioners have a right to demand. What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of the law.”
If the Ricci decision was a rebuke to believers in government-granted rights, for the rest of us it should be a wake up call; a desperately needed opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the uniqueness of America and the wisdom of its founding document.
Abraham Lincoln may as well have been speaking to us today when he said back in 1858:
“My countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence … if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our charter of liberty, let me entreat to you to come back – return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me, take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.”
“Come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.”
It’s hard to think of a better message for this Independence Day.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has published 19 books, including 10 fiction and nonfiction best-sellers. He is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation and chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future. For more information, see newt.org. His exclusive column for The Examiner appears Fridays.
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