One Man Can Make a Difference
Statement by Rick Stanley - December 18, 2001
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2001 EDITORIAL OPINION PIECE Stanley for U.S. Senate Campaign The following statement of editorial opinion is offered for your use by Rick Stanley, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate. ============================================================= One Man Can Make a Difference My name is Rick Stanley. I am a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate, from Colorado. I am a Denver businessman running a company called Stanley Fasteners & Shop Supply. I have 27 years of business experience. Most good, some bad. I am only one man. There are hundreds of thousands of unconstitutional laws in America today, passed by city councils, county boards, state legislatures, and federal government officials, all of whom have sworn an oath to defend our national constitution and the Bill of Rights. I guess I just got tired of people telling me that one man cant do anything to change all that. I decided to take a stand, on principle, against an unconstitutional law in Denver, the city where I live. At 12:20 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2001, at the Bill of Rights rally held near the state Capitol, I was arrested after giving a twenty minute speech about the Second Amendment and then putting a loaded pistol in a belt holster around my waist, per my Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Besides infringing my Second Amendment rights, the arrest also violated my right protected by the Colorado constitution, Article II, Section 13, which guarantees to every person the right to keep and bear arms in defense of person, home, and property. Apparently the constitution does not apply in Denver, because the city council and mayor of Denver are in fact enforcing an unconstitutional, and therefore illegal, law. OK, so now Ive been arrested. Im in the back seat of a Denver police cruiser with my arms behind my back, wearing handcuffs. A few minutes later Im in the parking garage under the city jail, across the street from the Denver Mint. I thoroughly enjoy all the attention from the SWAT team, the multitudes of police officers in blue uniforms, the undercover police in the crowd, the mounted police on their horses, dozens of marked and unmarked police cars, the crowd of supporters, the cameras, the microphones -- this is pretty exciting stuff. There is one thing, though. Im under arrest, in handcuffs, in the city jail. Sobering. And Im not even drunk. Did I hurt anyone with my actions? Did I violate another persons rights, or damage or steal someones property? No. Can they arrest me when I have not broken a constitutional law? Yes. They can, and they did, and I am the proof of that fact. I committed an act of civil disobedience against an unconstitutional law so I can challenge that same law all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. I want to prove a point. One man can make a difference. One man can change everything. Im starting with one bad law. Some wonderful predecessors helped educate me about civil disobedience. The list is lengthy. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Henry David Thoreau, William Penn, Susan B. Anthony, and John Peter Zenger are just a few notable individuals who have challenged the government with acts of civil disobedience. Others committed an act of civil disobedience by signing the Declaration of Independence -- people like John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee. Whether youve heard of them or not, they are all American heroes who, because of their unshakeable faith in liberty, had the courage to stand up to an oppressive government. Lets think about Rosa Parks. She was a woman, a black woman, who had the temerity to say she wouldnt sit at the back of the bus, behind the white people. One woman, a simple woman who had the courage to stand up against an oppressive law backed by a tyrannical government. She didnt think of the consequences. She just decided to say no more. I will be proud if anyone considers my action comparable to this wonderful womans act of disobedience. But thats not my motivation. My intent is to galvanize American citizens -- who have become complacent, uncaring, and unmotivated -- to do something about the erosion of freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The seed has been planted We will soon see if the American people believe their rights are important enough to defend. We have slated our next Bill of Rights rally for Saturday, January 19, 2002, at high noon, 12:00 pm, at the Capitol in Denver (Lincoln Park) and at every state Capitol all across America, to showcase the peoples right peaceably to assemble and to petition our government for the redress of grievances. The purpose of these rallies is to demand the repeal of all unconstitutional laws at every level of government. We want government officials, legislators, and the president of the United States to examine and consult with the people about the myriad laws that violate the Constitution. We must immediately start repealing all the unconstitutional laws enacted over the last 150 years. Those laws have been destroying our rights -- rights secured with the blood of American patriots who fought for freedom in the First American Revolution of 1776. Please dont misconstrue the slaughter of American Indian tribes as being part of any patriotic bloodletting. Im speaking of the blood shed and the lives lost in defense of liberty and freedom for all Americans. That is the one thing about this country we can take absolute, total pride in. Without our heritage of liberty and freedom, we would be lost and morally bankrupt. The time is now. Let us throw off the oppressive part of our government and demand that the oppressors respond patriotically to the Second American Revolution. ============================================================ |
Denver vs. The U.S. Constitution
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