The Bill of Rights does not confer rights on the citizenry

The Bill of Rights does not confer rights on the citizenry; rather it specifies various rights the citizens have that the government may not encroach upon. http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_29056.php

Since our Declaration of Independence in 1776 proclaimed "we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights - among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we Americans have believed we have been entrusted by God with rights that no politician, bureaucrat or judge can revoke.

Our forefathers believed ultimate power should always reside in the people, who would loan power to elected officials and who could reclaim it from them if necessary.
Secular socialists believe it's the government's right, and even its duty to change the people - to make them more progressive, more secular, more "tolerant."

Our government was viewed as a servant of the people, not the other way around. New Hampshire’s state motto, "live free or die," was typical of the intensity with which Americans guarded their natural-born rights.

Characteristically, one of the first acts of the first Congress was to pass a Bill of Rights that strictly limited the power of government. The First Amendment protects the right to free speech and also prevents the government from trying to control religion.

Will the American people continue to select representatives to whom we loan power? Or will America become a European-style country in which the permanent bureaucrats and permanent judges decide virtually everything, while the politicians merely play partisan games to entertain the public and satisfy their own ambitions?

Newt Gingrich, To Save America

Above all, don't fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.

Rita Levi-Montalcini