rights

After reading Kerber's book, as well as the supplemental reading from Hartog (and giving my presentation) I definitely think I have a better grasp on the differences between obligations and rights and how people have interpreted these words throughout our history. I think it is safe to say that people's interpretations of such a "concrete" document have obviously changed and the beauty is in the fact that the Constitution allowed for the ebb and flow of such ideas. In both the book and supplemental reading, we can see that citizenship and the attainment of rights is something we (Americans) have somehow always struggled for though we have evidence say "we the people" and "all men are created equal," etc... It was eye-opening to see how groups of different identity/class/ethnicity/gender have created so many layers to our conception of the world today. I think it is a great thing to question the meaning behind certain words and to truly examine if we all are due said rights or were they put in place for us to challenge them...