[Oztrich Boy]

My analysis on legitimacy of claimed "rights" is to rephrase the sentence, substiting "freedom" or "entitlement" to see which does less violence to the language.

We have a Freedom of Education

We have an Entitlement of Education

We have a Freedom of Expression

We have an Entitlement of Expression.

[rogerv]

More useful might be to think of rights as 'freedom from' or 'freedom to'. 'Freedom from' would mean that no one may interfere with my right to do something. 'freedom to' would include what are sometimes called 'welfare rights'--that one can expect to be provided with a decent minimum of some things to sustain life. The former would be a consistent reading of what Jefferson might have meant by the right to 'pursue happiness', which was probably a compromise between freedom to worship as we please (the concerns of the colonists at Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth) and the right to pursue wealth (the primary concern I think of the settlers of Virginia). The 'welfare rights' might fit in to the 'right to life' also in the Declaration of Independence, but that will take some arguing.

[PeterFinn]

You are entitled to your opinion.

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