Do human rights exist in the US?

No

I seriously doubt that human rights exist in the U.S. anymore. In the past 8 years we have seen our privacy invaded without our consent. ATT willingly gave up our phone numbers and private information to the government without our consent. We learned about it only after-the-fact.

We have seen good reporters thrown in Jail, several times, for not revealing their sources. This is confirmation to me that we no longer have freedom of speech.

We have seen numerous individuals detained and treated like criminals simply because someone thought that they "looked" too middle-eastern or foreign.

Sadly, sometimes, it's other Americans and not our government who attempt to take away this freedom. (That seems rather un-American of Americans, isn't it?) We have seen music Cd's stomped because an individual in a singing group voiced her opinion. That confirms for me again that we no longer have freedom of speech.

We have seen an entire city of people flooded out of their homes many drowned and our Government waited 4 days to even acknowledge the situation while the president's home state was able to get assistance the same day that their disasters occurred. Money, in the form of cards was promised, yet many of those victims never saw a 10th of that promised money. Again, the government cheated Americans!

We have seen peaceful impeachment protesters arrested for simply showing up in Washington to join a march.

We haven't had freedom of choice in a lot of matters for a long, long time. At every point in the history of the United States, someone somewhere has been limited in his or her freedoms. First, it was Native Americans, then Chinese, later Irish, women and the list continues through the centuries.

We are forced by law to be strapped into plastic vehicles where those of us with degenerative bone diseases will have our spines broken or crushed by seat belts; our necks snapped into by airbags deploying too fast. While the speed limit just kept going higher. Why not put restrictions on the speed of cars and lower limits on the road? Why not build cars with stronger cages?

We have discrimination laws in many states that don't allow for reverse discrimination. This is the case where I live, yet discrimination comes in many forms to people of many faiths and ethnicities.

Speak out against certain politician's actions and a public apology is demanded from you. Individuals are apparently not even allowed freedom of speech from other Americans.

We allow those in Washington who are manipulative and controlling, to utilize back-door policies and sneak through bills and changes that most Americans don't even know are happening. Policies totally unrelated to the bill to which they are attached, such as in the recent, Credit Card Bill which carries an option for people to take guns into public parks. You don't hear about most of them; few are mentioned on TV or radio. You don't read about them until they've been enacted. By then, it's too late to prevent bad legislation from being enacted.

Our troops are being ordered to slaughter innocent men, women and children and we have to hear about it from the BBC or read about it in another country's newspapers. If you don't speak a second language or listen to public radio, you're not likely to know that a school bombing by the US troops was not the only one that has occurred since the beginning of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Four years ago I read in the English version of an Italian newspaper about a school full of children being bombed by the US. The bizarre twist is that our Troops are being slaughtered, as well, because of an unwarranted war waged for what seems to be greed and a family's vendetta.

Two people are murdered in cold blood and the accused goes free only to confess to his ghostwriter years later about "How" he "did it." Police officers are often arrested for killing spouses often. In KY there is a Doctor currently on trial for running over his late wife with his boat and killing her.

Children are killing not only other children, but teachers and school officials, as well. Why can't parents be responsible enough to keep their weapons away from their own children? Why do parent's buy their children weapons to begin with? Even a child's hunting rifle should be kept away from him or her until they go out to actually hunt. Such irresponsible parenting, inevitable ends in the rights of other kids and teachers to live and attend school without being singled out by other kids for their "kill list"!

Virtually anybody can sue anybody else for anything; even one's own idiocy and carelessness such as rear-ending someone in a car while drinking hot coffee or talking on a cell phone. Doesn't it occur to anyone that they infringe on a person's right to come and go as they please, their right to just live a healthy and safe life, by their carelessness?

Corporations repeatedly are allowed to "Downsize" despite the fact that they are making more money than ever and are still downsizing, just so they can open up divisions in foreign countries where there is cheaper labor, while CEO's CIO's, etc., salaries keep going up. That infringes on an individual's right to work and earn a living.

Many corporations have taken advantage of the recent struggling economy and are laying off low-paid workers so that their management and boards can make even more money before the company goes bust!

Wall street took taxpayer monies in a huge bailout to have a party; travel and just plain enjoy themselves and are still doing it in many cases! Doesn't that infringe on the taxpayer's freedom to do with their paycheck what they please? It certainly infringes on a taxpayer's choice as to how their taxes are being used. With roads in nearly every state of the country still sporting huge chug holes from 3 previous winters, you would think that the government could find something better to do with those tax monies than to give it away to greedy investment companies and their incompetent management.

Banks and credit card companies are hiking interest rates by the scores, late fees and even posting payments weeks after they get them just so they can charge these late fees. Right now, congress has to deal the banks that are raising and tacking on ridiculous overdraft fees.

The government's Social Security Administration insists that you now have direct deposit set up in order to even get your disability or social security payments, which is your money because you worked and paid it into the system! That infringes on an individuals right to choose how they are paid. Many employers are now doing the same thing! People have to give out their private bank account and routing numbers to employers and the government. That infringes on an individual's right to privacy, as well as, your right to keep your bank account information private!

Our personal information is in nearly every database out there and accessible online. There are people on various websites and companies that are selling our personal information, as well as, our social security numbers! Just yesterday, AOL News and the Washington Post both listed an article on how easy it is for an individual to get your personal information or a credit card in your name if they only know 3-6 of your social security digits. http://www.walletpop .com/blog/2009/07/07 /1-in-10-social-secu rity-numbers-guessed -with-public-info/.

http://www.washingto npost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2009/07 /06/AR2009070602955. html

Given that 3 of these are coordinated to states by the numbers, that makes it all the easier for everyone to have your personal information, yet we are told by the Social Security Administration not to give out our social security numbers! Just having them in databases where they can be hacked is bad enough, but being sold on various Internet sites should be monitored and those responsible, severely prosecuted. Again, this infringes on our right to privacy!

Children are suspended and expelled from school for turning cartwheels and taking Jell-o in tiny cups to school. It infringes on a child's right to an education. A cartwheel may cause an accident, but it's no crime worthy of being expelled. It's a fact of childhood that children are going to get injured somewhere, somehow. And kids teasing about, Jell-o Shots don't warrant it either! It's a joke people! Children play jokes and tease. What has the world come to when we tie the hands of children who simply what to play and be the children that they are?

Gays and Lesbians are beaten, knifed even shot to death simply because their lifestyle is different. In a country that brags to the world about how, "Christian" it is; that's a slap in the face to Christ, the being that much of America claims to worship. Anyone who believes that we are all children of a greater being or power is certainly not following their creator's laws by killing those who are of a different belief, opinion or lifestyle. And that's certainly a loss of Gay and Lesbian human rights as every human, by every religions, creator's laws, has a right to life!

Parents face a judges threats each school year about how their child should arrive at school every day and on time or they will be charged with any number of ridiculous violations; some of which the parent's have to pay fines.

If parent's wished to home school his or her own children, the government meddles in that, too. Yet the government does nothing about making our schools safer for kids and teachers or their curriculum better. There are schools whose textbooks haven't been updated since the 1950's.

Basically Big Brother controls almost everything that Americans do. What we do or don't say, where we go, whom we talk to and what we say to them on the phone. What to do with our children and how to do it. How we handle our own pets. We are watched and monitored in the streets, in malls, dressing rooms, on public roads and intersections. The public is no better off in this regard; everyone wants a "camera phone" so they can poke fun at the person who doesn't look just right. Camera phones are being used to steal identity in stores and checkout lines. It's one of the many ways that Americans are infringing on other American's rights. Our government is doing nothing about it. It appears that those who wantonly break the laws are the ones who are free in America.

Not only is our government taking away Americans freedoms, but other Americans do, also. We don't tolerate each other's religions or religious symbols, the way many people dress, their hair or the condition of their property if they are having financial troubles.

Christians cannot put their 10 commandments in various places because it bothers people of other religions. Why can't the 10 commandments, the tenets of Buddhism, Muslim, and other religions share the same wall in a building? Why can't a mall have a Christmas tree and Menorah in the same display? Wouldn't' that be more agreeable and less discriminatory? If it gives each religion a voice; so be it. They're virtually the same; they simply teach respect and kindness. Something we seem to be lacking in America today.

Individuals cannot get the medical or alternative care that they need because insurance companies don't acknowledge centuries of natural cures that have worked. Talk about discrimination, there's a huge bit right there. Most people don't get a 10th of the information and advice that they need in order to make a decision about their own preventative health maintenance. Doctors are taught in medical school, only the treatments, testing and procedures that are the most recent, not those that have worked in the past or alternative ones. Now, that's not really educating doctors; that's manipulating and controlling them and their ability as healers. It eliminates their right to become good physicians and their ability to really heal others. It eliminates an individual's right to good health care and the possibility that a little maintenance, if they have the information, can eliminate the possibility of many surgeries and procedures. Yet, insurance companies would rather pay out a fortune in your premiums for unnecessary procedures and testing than to pay a 10th of that cost for alternative health maintenance that has been time proven to prevent those procedures and many surgeries. Therefore, even the insurance companies are taking away our right to control our own heal and health care!

In the case of insurance companies, one could write volumes on the way that they take away our right to good health care and our choices of types of health care. In fact, many volumes have been written on it and many who have written on it are in prison or awaiting prosecution for voicing their opinions.

Many clinics and doctors who have attempted to even implement alternative medicine into their treatment programs have gone to prison for their efforts to see that you get better choices in health care! That infringes on their rights to give good health care and on your and my rights to receive information that could prevent a health problem!

Many authors, some physicians, who have written books on alternative care have been sued and have ended up paying huge penalties for simply writing their opinion and informing the public. That's a clear infringement on their right to free speech!

And sadly, it's many of our own people who have lobbied and asked for the ridiculous laws that control us so strongly. You may say that: "We are freer than many other countries in the world. But it doesn't take away from the fact that we are definitely a lot less free, than we used to be.

It's what I've observed; I cannot deny the truth of what I have seen and read that is happening in my country. If we continue on this path, we are going to lose all of our freedoms.

America was founded on the principles of freedom for all, yet what we haven't stripped from each other; we have allowed our government to strip from us.

If we had any human rights in the US today, most of these things would never have occurred. I have to wonder about the many innocents in jails and prisons in this country, that have never committed the crimes that they were found "guilty" of committing. There are, in fact, thousands. Our judicial system is set up to prevent too much evidence from being presented in the courts that would actually clear many of these people. Lawyers, Jury Men and Women, even Judges are too easily paid off; sometimes their families lives are even threatened. This is not freedom. It eliminates rights for way too many.

I no longer believe that we have any human rights in the US. Our late, dictator-like "regime" of an administration showed me that the American People are only pawns in a bad game of chess between the all-too-wealthy criminals in the country. America is quickly becoming like every other communist regime of the past. With former presidents and vice presidents adopting and implementing "Hitler-like" policies and ignoring advice from Congress for their own agenda. No wonder America is in the mess that it is now.

You may say that we have more freedom here than in other countries and it may be a bit true, but it doesn't mean that we can't get back the freedoms that we've already lost by demanding them or that we can preserve those that we haven't yet lost. To say that we are better off is simply masking the fact that we are slowly becoming like other countries.

My God, people, you can be grateful for what you have without letting it be slowly sacrificed! Americans are entirely too passive. No, that doesn't mean that we need to be violent, but we do need to be watchful and diligent in the way we demand that our government adheres to its bosses rules. We pay them to "serve" American taxpayers. That is why we call them, "public servants". It's not un-American to remind the president or congress that we are the boss and pay their salary. In fact, it's 100% Pro-American!

One wonders if the new Administration can even begin to put a dent into the mess that the last one created. While I believe that our new president may be sincere and able to restore some American rights; what is to keep another, later administration like the last one from taking them away again? The fact is that there is nothing.

Our constitution is only a shell of it's original self. At least 70% or more of it has been modified, even reversed by past Administration with the Bush Administration doing the most harm of all! The "Patriot Act", as unpatriotic as it actually is, is an obvious warning to all Americans that the end of freedom is certainly coming and coming, all too fast. With the government, CIA, FBI among others, having the right to invade our privacy on any whim, that the "Patriot Act", clearly gives them; any president at any time is free to start another war and infringe on American rights and freedoms. It was reported only yesterday on FOX News and many other stations and newspapers, that the CIA has been deliberately deceiving our Congress since 2001! (Talk about that rumor about a "government within a government"), well, that clearly says that there is something to it!

My wish is that Americans will one day, wake up and realize that while doctors have been loading them down with anti-depressants, pain-killers, anti-psychotics and more that our freedoms, our rights are slowly being eliminated. It's time that Americans put aside their illusions of the American Utopia that these drugs seem to be projecting and wake up to organize and watch their own government!

No, I don't mean to start a rebellion and overthrow it, thereby getting even more people imprisoned and killed, but instead watch, note and at least petition or write your senators and representatives, lobby, sue if you have to, but be the change and freedom that you want to see again in America. That is about the only right that we do still have in this country and it's only a matter of time until another crazed and warmongering "regime" is blindly elected by the American people who would rather be at a ball game than watch a candidates political speech to see what sort of an individual or criminal that they are electing to office. That infringes on all of our freedoms and rights to have an Administration that is humane and compassionate, as well as, diplomatic and capable of running a country. Maybe then, we will not end up with another leader who sees fit to try and bankrupt the entire country in what appears to be an immature and petty "vendetta" war.

Wake up America! Get out there and create petitions, write weekly or daily if you can to your congress, senators and representatives. Especially write to your president and vice president when you see people imprisoned for stating their opinions, reporters for exercising their right to "protect their sources", doctors for treating people with new or older treatments that have proven, many for centuries, to work. Write about abuse of people, animals and our environment, violated human rights, deceptions on the part of government entities that you know are un-American. Exercise the only right that you do have under the "Freedom of speech" laws that still is available to you.

The pen is", truly, "mightier than the sword." So are the typewriter, word processor and computer and today the greatest tool we have is email! When you bombard government email servers enough with petitions and letters emailed to it; you're going to get action. Believe me, with a government that now relies on email to communicate with each other; your individual petitions and letters, not spam, constantly crashing government email servers, are going to receive attention and it will most likely result in a government that realizes that Americans will not stand for a loss of total freedom and human rights.

Learn more about this author, M. L. Kiser.
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