Up To Date With Ethan Callender Entry 2: Rights and Wrongs

Up To Date With Ethan Callender Entry 2: Rights and Wrongs

Welcome back to Up To Date with Ethan Callender! Today, we begin with somber news, as civil

rights icon and Congressman John Lewis is dead. He had been a battler for almost his whole life, but

pancreatic cancer is what proved too much to overcome. The battles he fought in previously were

numerous and noble, including sit-ins protesting segregation, the March on Washington, and the Selma

march. Even after the civil rights movement’s heyday, he never stopped fighting, and that kind of

determination is downright inspirational to me and many others. This is a tough loss to swallow, and his

legacy will live on in America and the minds of its citizens for a long time to come. Now, if only Marco

Rubio picked a picture with him in it to pay tribute to him. Nevertheless, John Lewis will be sorely missed

by me, and hopefully the American people will unite as a whole to honor the ideas that our Founders

wrote; the ideas that Lewis dedicated his life to. May he rest in peace and power.

Now, let’s talk about a national travesty, and I am not referring to Kanye’s campaign. We’re gonna

wait until that one’s good and ripe. No, I am referring to recent events in Portland, Oregon. Unfortunatelymainstream media coverage on this has been lacking, despite the fact that government agents are

detaining suspected protestors illegally and in unmarked vehicles. Let’s look to the Constitution to see if this is a good idea. The Fourth Amendment reads thisverbatim; The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against

unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon

probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched,

and the persons or things to be seized.” I know that was a lot of words at once, but what the

Constitution says here is that the government can’t arrest without a legally valid reason and/or without

a warrant.

This also violates the 1st Amendment, which governs the rights to free speech and peaceful protest, both of which could be suppressed by these arrests. Granted, some protests in Portland have turned violent for brief periods of time, but the majority were peaceful. Nevertheless, the Trump administration insists they are trying to help the people of the city, despite the officers being there due to an executive order designed to protect federal property and statues. Given that these protests stem back to the murder of George Floyd back in May, I find Trump’s desire to protect statues over minority lives a testament to the values of a significant portion of America’s people. If our nation is on the road to dictatorship, as many anti-Trumpers have speculated throughout this period of unrest, his remaining supporters deserve all the consequences of the transition. However, my message to them is that should this come to pass, don’t say the anti-Trump crowd didn’t warn you.