[geeks] 4th Amendment Gone

[Mike Meredith]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:38:23 -0500, sammy ominsky wrote:
> On Mar 30, 2004, at 02:06, Mike Meredith wrote:
> 
> >> Ah, then you probably don't understand the difference between
> >rights> and privileges.
> 
> Sorry, I was sitting in a restaurant with my 5-year old when I typed 
> that off-the-cuff response.

It did sort of sound like someone hit 'send' a little early :)

> As far as I understand, rights are inherent, while privileges are 
> granted.

And privileges are usually granted to selected groups ... like
shareholders of a company having the right to have a say in how the
company is run.

I know that some people believe that rights are inherent, but I'm not
one of them. And the dictionary definition doesn't indicate whether they
are or are not inherent.

But whether we won those rights from our government, or won them back
from our government (sometimes by changing governments) probably doesn't
matter that much. Providing we remember it took a great deal of effort
to win (back) those rights, and honour the memory of those who fought
for those rights.

Interestingly the second meaning of 'right' in the OED is 'one's duty'.