Rights and Responsibility

Our rights are inseparable from our responsibilities—the ability to respond to what is right and what is wrong. Yet today, I find myself asking: what part of the Constitution do we no longer understand?

Everyone has an opinion, but due process seems to have devolved into a “do-do” process. The principles that once anchored our democracy now feel muddied by confusion, privilege, and selective enforcement.

Over time, I’ve watched elected officials—often people of means—speak passionately about freedom. Yet if you don’t have six figures in the bank, your ability to exercise certain rights is severely limited. Even understanding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has become a polarizing debate.

There’s irony in how individual rights, especially those protected under the First Amendment, play out in real life. They often hinge not on principle, but on access to competent legal representation.

If you’re poor in this country, your odds of going to jail are far higher than if you’re rich. Hundreds of thousands of people are held in U.S. jails before trial simply because they cannot afford bail. Some estimates suggest over 400,000 individuals remain in pre-trial detention—not because they’ve been convicted, but because they lack the money to secure release.

Law enforcement officers, like professionals in any field, include both principled actors and reactive ones. Yes, they risk their lives when pulling someone over on the highway. But sometimes they fail to exercise—or even understand—the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Maybe it’s time for a national conversation about rights. Most people don’t realize that rights come with responsibilities. These freedoms were earned through sacrifice, yet many tout them as entitlements in a culture that’s forgotten the cost.

For the past several months, I’ve been protesting on a bridge in Woodstock, Virginia. We’ve tried to work with law enforcement, who claim we pose a safety hazard.

On Labor Day, a close friend was peacefully demonstrating on the Shenandoah Cavern bridge, a public roadway. State police handcuffed her, treated her harshly, and imprisoned her for four hours. She wasn’t read her rights, wasn’t allowed a phone call, and was, in my opinion, handled unjustly. A peace officer would have de-escalated the situation and calmly said, “Please get off the bridge, or you will be arrested.”

If we don’t protect the right to peacefully protest, we edge closer to a police state. It feels like we’ve shifted—from democracy to autocracy, and now toward something more militarized.

It’s heartbreaking. Lawmakers—and even the Supreme Court—might do well to revisit James Madison and reflect on the original intent behind our democracy. Because if we lose sight of that, we lose the very soul of what this country was meant to be.

Many leaders say no one is above the law. I challenge that assumption. Look how long it took to bring Jeffrey Epstein to justice. And what about all those others who get pardoned? It’s all about who you know—and how much dough you have for lawyers.

Those who act responsibly should have rights. And they should not be arrested unless there is clear malicious intent. Otherwise, we risk criminalizing conscience—and forgetting the very foundation of liberty.