This piece of parchment stands between you and tyranny

I've been asked, "Why bore folks with stuff about that dusty old piece of parchment, the Constitution? It doesn't affect most people in their daily lives, anyway, does it?"

Well, the U.S. Department of Education found recently that just 12 percent of American high school students are proficient in American history. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute gave a similar test to college seniors at 50 large and small institutions around the country, including Harvard and Yale; the average grade was an F.

Worse, a recent Newsweek poll found that 70 percent of the American general public was unaware that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. What indictments of our education system.

So I'll argue for the relevance of that old piece of parchment because most folks just don't realize their rights, as guaranteed in the Constitution, are gradually and inexorably being eroded by government.

Case in point:

The 14th Amendment says, in part, that government " ... shall not ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This has been defined to mean, and upheld in dozens of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, that government must treat every citizen the same as every other citizen in similar circumstances. This was originally designed to protect newly freed slaves, yet government agencies routinely violate this basic rule.

Don't agree? Let's analyze a recent local over-reach by your federal government.

The U.S. Forest Service has floated the idea of a $5 or $10 "fee" per person for each boat passenger headed into Hell's Canyon, for each trip. This "fee" is advertised to maintain various Forest Service properties and services for visitors, whether or not those facilities are, in fact, visited. Those entering Hells Canyon from tributaries, like rafters entering from the Salmon, would not pay the "fee."

So an agency of the federal government is essentially telling power boaters only that they will be forced to pay a portion of the canyon's Forest Service expenses (an additional "tax," wouldn't you say?). Yet hikers, horseback riders, motorcycles, etc, will have the same access without this "fee."

Isn't the Forest Service financed by the income tax? Why do they need more money in the form of a separate "fee" not authorized by Congress? Where do they get the authority to levy this additional tax? Certainly not from the Constitution.

Yep, that's a pretty blatant abuse of the 14th Amendment. But most Americans today have somehow come to sheepishly accept whatever a government agency decides to require. Oh, government agencies are required by law to have "public input" meetings and accept mail and website "comments" by the public.

Ultimately, however, they are not legally bound by that public input, so will often just go ahead and do what they want, regardless. If the Forest Service proceeds with this proposal, the only effective way to push back is for someone to sue them. This is where our system gets messy in that no citizen can afford to pursue a case like this without incurring huge legal bills. Meanwhile, the government can use the resources of the federal bureaucracy to fight your lawsuit, and very few lawyers want to take on the federal government's legal teams. Of course, the Forest Service knows all of this, and abuses the knowledge.

Each of the government entities (library boards, city, county, state governments) has learned these lessons. It has been said that " ... power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ... "

You can be sure that your elected officials, once they have learned how the systems surrounding their offices work, will use those tools to advance their own beliefs about what their government branch should be doing. This is not to say that they are always (or even necessarily) dishonest, but notice that they seldom make a decision that is likely to threaten their re-election.

Government officials will always make the decisions that increase the size of their office, expands their level of importance, or gives them more power. And they will always tell you that there is not enough money to fund the "very important services" that government provides you.

If they get a chance, local governments will even create ghost accounts (called "reserves") containing off-budget money to be used for "contingencies" (at their discretion, of course).

And that, Dear Reader, is how your government gets away with violating your rights, and why that "old piece of parchment" is still important.

Stay tuned right here each Saturday.

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Rogers of Clarkston is a retired manager at CCI-Speer (now Vista Outdoor). His email address is Rrogerr76@gmail.com.