Commentary: In America, people have more right than roving predators

Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, January 11, 2005

The Indians in Alaska have a saying that the wolf is the big brother to the caribou because it is the wolf that keeps the caribou strong by killing the weak, old and sick. What that is saying, though romantic, spiritual and idealistic and high-sounding, fails to say is the wolf also kills other caribous, other animals and humans.

I love and cherish the wilderness on our planet (in fact, that is one of the reasons I relocated here) and the natural diversity that surrounds us on this lovely blue-green planet created by our Creator.

Orcas are an example of beautiful, graceful, intelligent, deadly carnivores that allow men to get in the water with them and capture the orcas while the orcas passively wait for humans to take away their freedom and substitute our ocean aquarium for their home.

I believe that there are some relationships between species that are beyond our current intellectual gifts, scientific knowledge, and we need to use our spiritual gifts to understand and as best we can support those relationships.

How we contribute to, participate in and do good leaving our beautiful blue-green planet at least as wonderful as we found it for our children’s children is a worthy goal.

The best system of determining those choices ever in recorded history was immortalized in our Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. Those documents-contracts were created acknowledging a Creator and natural laws.

Our founders sought the best they could find from all the cultural and belief systems known to them to create our documents-contracts.

The American system is the only one on the planet that is a constitutional republic whose derivation of power is clearly spelled out in the founding documents-contracts.

The power and authority given our government is unique because we clearly state that all rights, power and authority come from our Creator to the sovereign people.

Those rights of the people are unalienable and that certain limited and specific rights, power and authority are loaned to our government to do specific and limited work for the benefit of the people “and to secure these rights governments are instituted.”

Our Constitution is a trust agreement (contract) between the founders (and all Americans past and present) and the holders of those elected, appointed and employed public servants to do only how and what the sovereign people have written in those documents-contracts.

Legislatures, judges, executives and any other public servants can only operate legitimately within those limits.

To expand some limits they must seek and receive the approval of more than the majority of the sovereign people.

Other limits on government such as freedom of the press, religion, speech, assembly, private property and the keeping and bearing of arms can never be interfered with or even attempted to abridge.

The public servants by their oath of office contract to operate within those constitutional descriptions.

Well, how does this relate to wolves, bears, cougars and predators? It relates first because the majority regardless of how powerful, well-meaning and self-righteous can never trample on the unalienable rights of any minority.

Even one sovereign person has unalienable rights that we the people have determined come from our Creator. Not me, not you, or not all of us together (without scraping the system altogether like Hitler, Stalin or Mao) can legitimately trample the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of any other sovereign person.

So the government or its minions of public servants can never tell you or me what to do in our private lives or with our private property (to our founders they are the same).

Through our common law history and documents we have a limitation. We must be responsible for our actions or behavior. If a neighbor or other sovereign person can convince a jury of our peers that I damaged him or her, then I must be responsible to repair or restore the damage.

Some of those are called civil damages and some are called criminal damages. The difference is criminal damages must be proven to a jury of our peers that willful intent to do damage existed or exists.

With wolves, bears, cougars and other predators on my private property, I may do with them as I choose. If someone can prove to a jury of my peers that my actions damaged some other person then I must pay the damages.

If a jury of my peers determines that I had willful intent to damage that other person, then my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness can be restricted or eliminated.