"John Smith" wrote in message
...

Dee:

"Dee Flint" wrote in message Still it is an
important distinction that it is in the Declaration of
Independence but not in the Constitution. And is it important to
understand
the differences in their purposes.


Yes indeed. There are two (in fact more) documents protecting our rights
and agreeing people are the true power, and NOT governments.

The Declaration was designed to explain to the world why the colonies
wished
to separate themselves from England. It was intended to elicit
sympathy and


Yes, and they did a very fine job of it. Indeed, I have not seen many
papers which make humanity the reason for its arguments, and individual
rights in particular. Some now wish to find reasons to weaken these
premises and arguments, strange how societies can never rid themselves of
fools destined to repeat the same mistakes ...

On the other hand, the Constitution was designed to define how we were
actually going to govern ourselves. The rhetoric of the Declaration is
inappropriate


Absolutely NOT, while kings, rulers, dictators, powerful corporations, the
wealthy, and the mentally challenged might confuse rights with rhetoric,
those whose ancestral line runs back to these time, and the traditions
carried forth to this time have no such confusions. There is no rhetoric
in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is not rhetoric in
"God given rights." There is no rhetoric in being secure in person and
property. You give me nightmares in the type of world you would allow to
come. I only hope you never run for office, even dog catcher would worry
me in your case! (however, you are probably a nice person)

Let us take liberty as a very simple example. If that were included
in the
Constitution as an "unalienable" right, we wouldn't be able to lock up
serial killers.


Preposterous, that is like arguing liberty = murder. We all have absolute
liberty, granted by our creator, we govern ourselfs in its use. The people
have that right, the government does not, unless it serves as only a tool
of the people in doing so. There is much confusion here, laws do NOT give
us rights and/or liberty, they only serve to remove or control those.
Before we apply law, we are only governed by our creator, and he has given
us all free will.


No I'm saying that all our rights do have limits and that it is for a very
good reason. If our rights were absolute, they would have no limits and we
could indeed kill each other to attempt to insure those rights. Society has
decided (and rightly so) that doesn't work too well for the survival of
society. The moment society decides that some rules are required to make
that society work, then our rights are limited.

Let's also take that "pursuit of happiness" in terms of radio spectrum


We all also have unlimited rights to the pursuit of happiness, limits on
those pursuits are simply when they deprive another of exercising their
rights to such pursuits. A child learns this early in school, a finer
tutoring includes sharing ... if we deny others what we have, especially
though little tests and requirements as a policy of picking and choosing
"who we want to play with", we are NOT maintaining order, we are screwing
people, plain and simple, in fact only a simple person would have
difficultly seeing through that rubbish.

Again if it were an absolute right, one could pursue that at the expense of
others. Again society has decided that doesn't work too well and of
necessity puts some limits on it. Then it becomes a matter of opinion
whether those limits are appropriate.

It so happens that I think code is a basic of radio and should be required
at a basic level. I do not consider it a filter, right of passage or other
such nonsense.


No Dee, you are simply another, "The sky is falling!", decrier. No Dee,
the sky is not falling, some are simply made a prisoner to their own
fears, fears which lead them into depriving other Americans of their
rights--in so doing, the "champions of justice" end up becoming the evil
which controls, deprives, and punishes people who do not think as they do.
These groups have come and gone through our history.


I haven't predicted any major catastrophe so I think you've tagged the wrong
person with your Chicken Little reference. I have discussed what others
seem to fear but I do not fear it.

Open your eyes, todays world is much different than the one which you were
born into. Today you can call anywhere in the world from anywhere, if you
are even in most remote areas a cell phone allows you such access; if that
fails, there are satellite phone. Today, the internet will let you
converse to anyone anywhere in the world, allow you to view and access
materials anywhere in the world or share any such materials to anyone,
anywhere in the world.


That is irrelevant to amateur radio.

In this world, amature radio tries to keep itself isolated as an island, a
religious club of fanatic devotes with far too many decrying the sky is
falling ... the sky is not falling ... radio is dying.


Again, I'm not the one worried about it. I see people every month joining
our ranks. If you look at the statistics, it is quite obvious that amateur
radio is not dying. It has its ups and downs but the numbers are quite
robust.

The good news is, much awaits amateur radio's future from its' ashes. From
those ashes will spring forth a service which will bear little resemblance
to the old, antique and outdated practices of the past.


Since it's not dying, there won't be any ashes. I've seen the proposals so
far and there is nothing exciting in them. Digital voice? Ho-hum, I've got
that on my cell phone. And it can be implemented any time hams want to spend
money on new equipment New digital modes? Sure but they're just new
flavors of the same old thing. Hooking to the internet? Already been done
and that's not terribly exciting either. Once upon a time, radio led
technology (i.e. linked repeater systems with phone patches pre-date cell
phones). Now it doesn't and there is nothing exciting in emulating
commercial implementations in amateur radio.

Basically, radio is a mature field. As with any mature field, improvements
can be made but that's about it.

The excitement comes in the personal growth and development and in helping
others to discover those for themselves.

Dee, N8UZE