Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

BILL OF RIGHTS Defense Committee - Working with communities to uphold the Bill of RightsWe the People
Working with communities to uphold the Bill of Rights
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Tompkins County (New York) Legislature Bill of Rights Day Proclamation

WHEREAS, the United States Constitution is a remarkable document that provides citizens a system of check and balances with a strong executive branch, a representative legislature, and a federal judiciary, and

WHEREAS, citizens of the original colonies suffered long under the tyranny of the British monarchy and demanded strong guarantees that the new government would not trample on their newly won freedoms of speech, press, religion, nor upon their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures, and

WHEREAS, the Declaration of Independence refers to "inalienable rights" as those natural rights individuals possess, and that no majority even in a democracy should be able to take away, and

WHEREAS, our founders believed that government's role was not only to protect the community against foreign and domestic threats, ensure economic growth, and conduct foreign affairs, but also protect individual rights, and

WHEREAS, many states refused to ratify the U.S. Constitution without receiving the commitment from those ratifying states that soon thereafter they would also adopt a bill of rights to protect individuals from a despotic central government, and

WHEREAS, in September 1789 the First Congress of the United States proposed to the State Legislatures such amendments to the Constitution, which by December 15, 1791, had been ratified by three-fourths of the States, constitution the first ten amendments of the Constitution, and known as the Bill of Rights, and

WHEREAS, since the adoption of our Bill of Rights, many citizens have made great personal sacrifices on the battlefield as well as working within representative government, and witnessing on the public square to preserve, protect, and extend our freedoms, and

WHEREAS in 1941, 150 years after the first 10 amendments were adopted, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared December 15, National Bill of Rights Day, and

WHEREAS, the terrorist attacks of September 11th resulted in the swift adoption of legislative and executive measures to protect our citizens from further acts of terrorism, but such measures were often developed and implemented without thoughtful comprehensive debate, and some of them contain language seemingly at odds with the Bill of Rights, and

WHEREAS, even today, many of our citizens are not particularly familiar with the provisions of the Bill of Rights and take freedom for granted, and

WHEREAS, the issues of liberty and security remain of the utmost importance to our citizens,

NOW, THEREFORE, I Tim Joseph, do hereby proclaim December 15, 2004, the 213th anniversary of the ratification of Amendments 1 - 10 of the U.S. Constitution, as BILL OF RIGHTS DAY IN TOMPKINS COUNTY and encourage our residents to inform themselves on these matters so as to best advise and urge our Congressional representatives to support the most effective measures to protect our security while preserving our liberty.