Last week, Front Range Objectivist Hannah Krening published an excellent letter to the editor in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Time to fight for your rights

I am not a politician or a government bureaucrat. I am a musician who cannot escape the point that our country is at a turning point. There’s an old Reggae song with these words:

“Stand up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights!

“Don’t give up … don’t give up the fight!”

We know that we love our country for the freedom, the rights that are our birthright, and some of us believe they are threatened, but what are rights? Is the right to pursue our own happiness and keep the fruits of our labor the same as a “right” to education, government assistance, health care? Why or why not?

Where do rights come from? Are they privileges handed out by a benevolent government, God-given, or do they exist because of our nature as human beings?

What are the principles, the ideas behind our Founders’ willingness to fight for their rights? What principles could be so deeply understood as to inspire them to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to defend them?

A short message cannot give you answers, so instead I want to call you to the battle of ideas. To know the answers to these kinds of questions we must rise above our education and work to get a deeper understanding of that which we know we are losing.

If we disagree with current trends and legislation, it’s not enough to vent, and just feel good when we hear the words “freedom” and “rights.” We must carry on where our Founders left off, and not give up the vigilance, the fight. Only if we know HOW to face those who would further erode our rights will we ever be effective.

We have great documents, great thinkers and even great fiction to fuel our battle. The words of our Founders, of Ayn Rand, and of living writers such as Edward Cline and Amity Schlaes are well worth our time.

I hope we can honor the Founders and our country by a pledge to hone our thinking and actions. We need to regain our understanding of the roots of freedom, and then “Stand up! Stand up! Stand up for our rights!”

Hannah Krening, Larkspur

Great job, Hannah!