by Linzee

Created on: September 25, 2007

In today's world we seem to think that the comfort of the majority is more important than the liberty of the individual. The biggest example of this is the battle over freedom of speech, and what right the government has in limiting it. Allowing government to decide moral issues such as these is unconstitutional. Under the Constitution, we are expected to tolerate those things that offend us, not stop the person who is offending us. Forcing someone to conform to what you feel is "proper", is an obscene violation of human rights. We need to advance ourselves past this thinking and embrace the changes in the modern world.

The government has no right to step into someone's personal life and tell them how they should be doing things. This is best compared to the battle over freedom of speech. Whether the words a person says or the clothes they wear offend someone, the Constitution is there to protect them, to give them the right to be whomever they choose. A person's clothes are just the same as their words, it belongs to them. It is an expression of the individual, unique to them and shared with no one. The government has no right to step in the middle of this.

Today many people think the government is supposed to monitor their citizens to make sure everybody is getting along. They want the government to "parent" those citizens with whom they disagree, but the government was actually made to protect those citizens who offend others, giving them the right to express themselves without punishment. It is our duty as American citizens to tolerate those things that offend us. No one has the right to murder someone just because they said something offensive. It is the same with how a person dresses. No one has the right to tell someone else how to get dressed in the morning.

The proposition to ban certain clothing is a major violation of human rights. In the home, citizens can do what they wish, and that is how it should be. By forcing some of your citizens to change what they wear, you are singling out a minority group and telling them that they don't know how to dress themselves. But we still trust these same individuals to drive a car on our freeways.

Clothing does nothing to determine who is the bad guy or who is the good guy. It's just one person expressing themselves. Trying to stop that is taking away the rights they have as a person. The Constitution was written to protect the individual from the government and from persecution from the masses. Trying to limit what one wears is the same as trying to limit what one says. History has shown us that neither can be done. Perhaps we should listen to these "minorities" and hear the ideas they have to share with us. And if you don't like the pants, don't buy them. Just please don't burn down the store.

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