Currently, Federal, Tribal, State, County, and Cities have defined frameworks of rights and laws. As a Cooperative Zone, we are agreeing with how these rights and laws are implemented. If the community wants to change any of those we should do so under the current rules of those entities.
Values of each Zone are actually up for debate and vote. Communities can determine what their own values are. I’ll start with some basic American founding values.
- Consent of the Governed. Our governments are created by us and serve us.
- Our rights come from our humanity and not from our governments. Governments are a tool that can help us protect those rights, they are also the force that can be used to take away our rights. We must be forever vigilant.
- Limited Government. This is true on two levels. The first is that governments are given limited abilities when we created them. They can’t go outside that bound. The other limit is that no government can violate individual rights, even with consent of the governed. For example, the right to equal treatment under due process of law. No people can vote to take away an individuals or groups property. That can only be taken when laws are being applied fairly, and being applied by the legal process in place.
I am not listing all rights humans have, but will list a few that are currently under pressure.
- Freedom of belief. Individuals own the thoughts they have. No one should be forced to change what they believe. No one should be prohibited from expressing their views. Critically, an individual can express their believe that another individuals beliefs are in error. In other words, being wrong is a protected right, expressing that someone else is wrong is also a protected right.
- Right of self protection. Individuals have the right to protect their lives and property.
- Right to privacy. I’ll just paste the US forth amendment. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Community values
These are not rights, but things that create an environment where political discourse can happen.
Reciprocity. If we believe that we can express our own opinions, then we must believe that others can express theirs. Behavior that attempts to silence others creates division, each side attempting to silence the other. Unity happens when we apply the same rules to others as we wish they would apply to us.
Labeling peoples by their beliefs. Since labels can mean different things to different people, labeling creates division. If someone currently labels themselves as a communist, then it is ok to refer to them as that. If however, if they do not label themselves as being part of a belief system, then to call them that is to decide what their beliefs are. Ideas can be labeled, but not people. For example, the idea that the government should take over a certain industry is a socialist idea.