The Fundamental Right

For John, BLUF:  In my lifetime a lot of Governments have murdered a lot of people—millions—because they held "unapproved" political, religious or economic views or had the wrong DNA..  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is the Ninth Amendment to the US Constitution:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

I have taken this, in the recent past, to include the right to be wrong, or the right to be stupid.  You may think this is a dangerous right, given problems like climate change.  I, on the other hand, remember, from back in the mid-1980s, a discussion on a morning TV news program where the guest asserted that 90% of what we knew to be true in 1900 we now know to be false.  What if it were only half that is now wrong?  That is still a big number.

Democracy is built on the idea it is OK to be wrong.  We don't send you to a re-education camp just because you chose wrong at the last election.

In yesterday's edition of The [Lowell] Sun Mr George F. Will touched on this point in his OpEd, "Judge Kavanaugh: Is government truly of, by and for 'the people'?"

Regards  —  Cliff