Zachary Piotrowicz

Garrity
May 22 2015
Us. History
The citizens of the United States are being constricted by the government taking gradual
amounts of rights over time, starting with the ratification of the constitution, then revisions to the
amendments, and lastly modern government control over the original freedoms fought for during
the Revolutionary war.
From the start, we can talk about the ratification of the constitution, where we have our
Bill of Rights and our citizenship rights. One of the most important things to take away from the
Constitution is that all men are created equal. One big problem that was introduced shortly after
the Constitution, racism. The problem surrounding racism was a big part of the problems
surrounding the constitution. The earlier stages of Amercia did not see African-Americans as
equals and just as objects to make them money. After the civil war came about to solve slavery,
we saw the beginning of the revolution for African-Americans to get some rights as equals.
Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address states how everyone should be equal It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before usthat from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth(Lincoln). The progression of the equality spawned the Civil
Rights movement during the 1950s. This is where the African-American population began to get
some of the rights that they had been fighting for the entire time. After these events, the United

Nations met and created what we call the Universal Declaration of Human Rights The UDHR
comprises 30 articles that contain a comprehensive listing of key civil, political, economic,
social, and cultural rights. Articles 3 through 21 outline civil and political rights, which include
the right against torture, the right to an effective remedy for human rights violations, and the
right to take part in government. Articles 22 through 27 detail economic, social, and cultural
rights, such as the right to work, the right to form and to join trade unions, and the right to
participate freely in the cultural life of the community (Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR)). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights started a lot of the rights that the
African-American population believed what was right. This helped them recognize how that
every person is the same, without being differentiated by skin color or gender. With the
surrounding movements for equality, citizens began to get more of the rights that they deserved.
To move onto the next upcoming topics, when big law cases are involved with the
supreme court. There is usually something to be discussed about our amendments. The supreme
court in a lot of cases, has to usually change our amendments in order to maintain fair qualities
with our constitution. One for example for would be concerning the Miranda vs. Arizona case. In
this case, there was nothing that the police had to tell the people that were being arrested.
Therefore, when Ernesto Miranda was arrested by the police, the supreme court dismissed all of
the evidence that was found by the police so far. The reasoning that the supreme court used in
come to a verdict was that since the police did not tell him his rights once they arrested him.
Therefore, the supreme court made it law to tell the person being arrested their Miranda Rights
under the 5th amendment. That is just one example of the many of times that the supreme court
has changed the constitution to accommodate for the things that need to be revised as
technology advances. These revisements to the amendments allow the Constitution to evolve and

mature as a document. However, when the Constitution is changed to keep up with the standards
concerning technology, there can be imperfections. Some of these imperfections can be shown
with the government having to limit some of our rights in order to protect these things. This is a
big problem with our Constitution because it is taking away some of the rights that were
promised to us when it was ratified. Due to this being a very controversial topic, people are
beginning to question if all of the things being added to the Constitution are actually for the
better. Another example of the large changes to the Constitution is all of the gun-laws being put
in place in modern day. Most of these gun laws are coming from many of the problems
concerning guns like shootings and so forth. In order for the government to attempt to try and
stop many of the problems, they are forced to place these laws in place. From all of the different
situations happening around the U.S, gun laws are becoming more strict as time passes. Even
though our amendment states that we have the right to bear arms. That amendment is being
limited. When the amendment was made, it was made in order to give citizens the right to bear
arms or any weaponry. In modern day, it is being used as a way to hold onto what the citizens
can not do.
Finally, talking about how all of this is relevant to modern day. You may have heard of
the man, Robert Snowden. He is very iconic in talking about all of the illegal monitoring the
government were doing on everyone in order to protect the country from terrorists. In any other
country there would be no problem with this. Yet, in America, citizens are given the right to their
own personal belongings and cannot be searched without probable cause. Therefore, for all of the
government to be listening to people having conversations and watching text message, lies an
issue. We are exposed to constant snooping and the possibility that the government will misuse
the information it finds(Robert Samuelson). The weird part about all of it is, Robert Snowden is

being called a traitor to the country and had to run away from America. If he had stayed in
America, he probably would have been assassinated by the government for the things he had
said. Saying that, who really is at fault here, is it him for telling the truth and going against the
government in order to do so. Or is it the government for doing things like this in the first place?
The government should have never been doing this in the first place, therefore making Snowden
the correct one out of the two choices. The thing that is bothersome is that the government was
trying to keep this a secret on purpose. This event is one of many that have been happening since
Snowden had said something about it to everyone. Another example of this could be about
something as simple as police taking away some of our rights to own guns. As stated before,
many big situations is coming around right now due to people misusing deadly weapons like
guns. Here in Connecticut the events of Newtown started some of the biggest movements to
enhance gun laws. Because of mainly the Newtown event States, however, have seen some
action on the gun legislation front. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a
nonprofit organization, at least 64 state laws have been passed in the last two years that
strengthened gun regulations(Alissa Scheller). While thinking that taking away all of the
dangerous weapons seems like a fix, it is more like trying to stop a leak of water by using duct
tape, it works well for a little while and after time it begins to come back even worse than it was
before the quick fix. At the moment it seems like a good idea, but lets look at the overall idea
here. If you take away all of the guns, what happens when the government wants to take full
control and change policies. The whole reason that the 3rd amendment was made was to help
civilians protect themselves from the government. If you take that away from the civilians, what
is to stop the government. Lastly, to address the issue of our Constitution. The way America is
treating their manipulation of the Constitution is becoming alarming to many of us in America.

Everywhere we look in America, if deep enough, we can see some sort of misuse of the
Constitution. This is becoming a very relevant problem and has been since the creation of the
Constitution. First, we saw a lot of problems generating from the skin color movement. Then as
time went on, as holes were found in the Constitution, the supreme court fixed them. Now in the
current era, we are seeing developments that are hidden deep in government hiding most of the
things that they do not following the Constitution. People like Robert Snowden show these
trenched secrets. If nothing about this is changed, as time passes, the citizens of America are
going to be slowly constricted by the government.

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