The Bill of Rights To Publications / Articles - The Bill of Rights

Posted 6/21/19

An essay written by one of our Key of Liberty students in 2017.

I love the first amendment of the Bill of Rights.  In the first amendment we are granted the rights of freedom of religion, assembly, petition, speech, and press.  These are important to me because with these freedoms I am able to express myself as I want.  The most important part of this amendment to me is the freedom of religion.

Religion is very important to me!  If our founding fathers did not include the freedom of religion in the Constitution, we might all have to believe the same thing or we might be punished.  It seems that MANY wars start when people start fighting about religion.  We are a blessed nation.  I am glad that our founding fathers included the freedom of religion in our Constitution so that we don't have to worry about that freedom being taken away.  I can worship the way I want because of this amendment and that is an important part of my life.

If the freedom to assemble was taken from us, we would not be able to meet together when we wanted or where we wanted.  I think that sometimes we take for granted that we have these rights and we don't realize what it would be like without them.  This right is very important because without it we could not meet for church, with friends, or any other gathering without permission.  For that matter, we might not even have this Common Wealth School and I wouldn't be writing this paper.  I am very grateful for this freedom.

In the 1828 dictionary it says that a petition is a written supplication from an inferior to a superior asking a favor, a grant, a right, or for mercy.  We can write a letter, or petition, to our senators expressing our opinions and desires.  They can take these petitions and make changes.  We can all help make changes in America through petitions.

The freedom of speech is also a very important right.  I am very grateful that we get to say what we want.  We need to be careful about what we say because even though we have this freedom, there are still consequences for the things that we say.  For example, I wrote an opinion paper about our right to swear at the park, but that there are consequences for the way we behave and the things we say.  If you choose to use bad language, you will not be respected.  Just because we are given freedoms, doesn't mean we should abuse them.

We are given the freedom to write what we feel.  This is the freedom of press.  The press is a very powerful tool.  This is how ideas get out into the world and changes are made.  People are influenced by the press.  The freedom of press is a good right to have, but you have to be cautious because people say things that aren't true and the press can be very persuasive.

Overall, there are a lot of important amendments in the Bill of Rights, but I think that the first amendment is the most important.  Without these rights our nation could be led by tyranny.  Because of these rights we have the freedom to believe what we want, meet together, and express ourselves.