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Rights and Freedoms

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Rights and Freedoms When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution they realized they did not outline the rights of the people. The added the Bill of Rights to ensure that the people knew their rights and so future politicians could not infringe on those rights. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments ensuring Americans freedom of speech, freedom to protest, freedom to bear arms, and many others. The first amendment is the most popular and one of the most important of the amendments. The first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Personally the most important part of the first amendment is the freedom of speech. Being able to speak your mind without fear of being prosecuted for it is a true freedom. I have family that came from Cuba; a country where speaking your mind can lead to jail time or death. I know that this is a freedom we take for granted in the United States. The first ten amendments are significant because they are the first but there have been many more amendments that have changed America for the better and some for the worst. The most blood was spilt before the thirteenth amendment was passed and ending slavery for good in the United States. However this did not end discrimination so the government had to add the fifteenth amendment to ensure that race was not to determine if a person could vote. This amendment did not include gender. So women rallied and the nineteenth amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. The eighteenth amendment, passed in 1919, prohibiting the sell or use of alcohol. This was the government’s effort to instill morality into its citizens but it backfired

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