The following is a guest post from Letters and Essays by Taylor from his Jail & Thoughts page on https://peasantsperspective.com/lettersandessays/
“…Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms ~ to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” This eternal truth was the conclusion of holocaust survivor Victor Frankl. I was taught this as a child, grounded to home, prevented from playing with my friends, (I am sure for some nonsense). I told my Mom I was bored, I demanded some entertainment, something…she replied with a statement of fact, I have never been able to distill further, “Happiness is a Choice”.
Our country threw off the shackles of tyranny with the infamous Declaration of Independence, wherein Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain unaLienable rights among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The founding fathers understood that happiness was achieved by living a life in accord with God’s Natural Law. That Natural Law is “True Law”, as Cicero in Rome described: “True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions…it is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is allowable to repeal any part of it, and is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by the senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens [or the USA, or D.C., California or Mexico] or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is the author of his law, its promulgator, and enforcing judge. Whose disobedience is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment (quoted in Ebenstein, Great Political Thinkers, p. 133)
Your right to pursue happiness cannot be abandoned by legislators, it cannot be altered, it cannot be repealed even by the people themselves, even though in ignorance we feign to do so. In natural law we are dealing with absolute reality, 1+1=2, A is A.
John Adams explained, “All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unaLienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.” (The Political Writings of John Adams p. 96)
“Happiness is a choice,” said my mother. Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is living in accordance with natural law, true Law. The wisest of all men once said, the truth will set you FREE.
In Black’s Law Dictionary under “Liberty; liberty to contract” it reads, “The ability at will, to make or abstain from making, a binding obligation enforced by sanctions at the law. The right to contract about one’s affairs, including the right to make contracts of employment, and to obtain the best terms one can as the result of Private Bargaining. It includes the corresponding right to Accept a contract proposed…it means freedom from arbitrary or unreasonable restraint…the right to make contracts with competent persons on a place of relative parity or freedom of choice and within the limits allowed or not forbidden by law”
Your right to be happy is unaLienable, you cannot even take your choice to be happy away from yourself. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has established through Erie v. Tompkins that in essence everything is a contract, you have a choice to pursue happiness exercising your “liberty to contract” by choice.
Salt Lake Attorney Denver Snuffer asked: “What, in the end, do you prize most? Do you prize all the risks, all of the responsibilities, all of the potential for failure, all of the individual accountability? I mean -…- what was the purpose of the Constitution? It was to make you free so that you can exercise moral agency, and you get the opportunity to succeed or fail. The purpose of the Constitution is to set you in a position in which it is possible for you to accomplish either one, so that You – You – become accountable – not to some back in Washington, not someone to whom you have surrendered your choice, not someone else to run your life, not someone else to tell you the comings and the goings, the when’s and the where’s and why’s. YOU the Constitution was designed to accomplish. YOU become morally accountable, because you are the agent that gets to choose…
…Cowardice is unbecoming anyone who would try to lay hold on the riches of heaven. Because down here, in this dark well, you have an opportunity to prove WHO you are. You have an opportunity to prove WHAT you are. And you don’t prove that you are anything worth preserving into eternity if you don’t live with Nobility.”…[you must use your liberty to choose], and I don’t care who is pressuring you or what means they think they can employ” [even the full weight of the Federal Government]. “That statement ‘I regret that I have but one life to give for my country’ is not the language of a slave. It’s not even the language of a captive. There is a Man who is free In-Deed, even though he’s about to be killed. You know, we lack fortitude – we lack self-confidence – to hold on to our freedom. You surrender to fashion. You surrender to peer pressure. You surrender to those people that you think are respected members of society. You surrender, but you don’t have to. Freedom is still possible to this day.”…
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"Happiness is a choice", Mom Said 3/12/2024
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