Personhood Nevada Blog

Thoughts and Opinions of Personhood Nevada staff, authors, and contributors.

Freedom as a “Complex Implication”

Sunday, January 10, 2010
by Ken Wilson

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/08/judge-personhood…

This proposal, said Judge Russell, “has complex implications.”

So did ending slavery.

“Complex implications” is not a defense for preventing the people of Nevada from voting on this initiative. The fact that America has already illegally stripped away personhood from some human beings is complex and incredible in itself. But now that the unimaginable has become commonplace, the remedy is now unthinkable.

Using the logic of incalculable consequences, Black Americans would never have been granted freedom from slavery. For who could fathom the impact of granting personhood to millions of black slaves in America? Who could calculate the economic loss in foreign trade, or the loss to shipping industry as trans-Atlantic crossings fell to nothing and the demand for slave ships dropped to zero? Who would compensate the southern farmer for his economic losses? And how much would the price of southern goods skyrocket? What would become of the slave auction industry? And who would educate these new Americans? Who would house them, and in what state or city would they live? And who would welcome them? The consequences of freedom are incalculable!

Using the argument of “complex implications”, slaves would still be counted as 3/5ths of a person. For if they had been counted as full persons, the south would have had the representation in Congress needed to fully secede from the Union. When the freedom to live and live freely is weighed against political considerations or economic calcuations or anything other than basic universal human rights, then the outcome is always the same.Those rights are always denied, for liberty always costs the oppressor. Complex implications are suffered by the oppressor, never the oppressed. Never the owned.

Thankfully, 200 years ago, there were found Americans willing to risk “complex implications” and who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to acquire freedom and liberty for all. In the Great State of Nevada, there are real decendants of those Americans. I have met them. They are the spiritual guardians of our liberties. And they will prevail.