day no. 17,291: using the word "rights" wrong

"The problem was not that the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave blacks certain rights, but rather that it gave them the wrong kind. It created the entire apparatus that misconstrues and misapplies the logic of rights. If civil rights for a black man meant that he was going to be protected from threats of bodily harm by Bubba if he tried to vote in rural Mississippi, then rights here means what it ought to mean. And that man should have his rights protected. But if civil rights for a black man meant that he was going to be promoted well past his abilities in order to make up for an injustice perpetrated against someone of the same color 150 years ago, then the word rights has been perverted, and twisted beyond all recognition." — Douglas Wilson, Not Civil Rights at All

Rights come from God. They are not created on the spot or in the moment. They are not generated in response to an injustice. They are not created in order to correct a problem. Rights are not disposable. They cannot be invented when you need them and done away with when they get in the way. They are either from God and for every image bearer or they are from man and for whoever those in charge determine eligible. But rights in the latter sense are not rights at all. They are privileges or prejudices. Rights, strictly speaking, are from God alone or they are not rights. 

The government cannot make new rights the way they make new dollar bills. They cannot produce rights. Our capitols are not rights factories. Neither are they rights incinerators. The state cannot create a right and they cannot destroy them. They can enforce them or they can ignore them. A good state enforces and protects the rights God has already provided. A bad state ignores those rights or even worse seeks to keep people from expressing them.