78-03-B5

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Treaties

Transcript "A man's home is his castle." That is a time worn truism, but it was born of a right we all have and take for granted with little thought of how it came to be. When our Founding Fathers--(that little band of men whose like the world has seldom seen)--gathered to draw up the Constitution , the right of an individual to own property was very much on their minds. In most of the world prior to that time the rulers, be they king, emperor or tribal chieftain, could award someone title to property and could also cancel the title. The framers of our Constitution had seen colonists' homes seized on the whim of George III. They had decided this must no longer happen. So the Fifth amendment to our Constitution reads,--QUOTE--"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. --UNQUOTE-- The American worker with his house and lot, the farmer plowing his own ground, the shopkeeper--we have all accepted this as part of the very basis of our freedom. But, I'm afraid we've forgotten it was not always this way. Now of course we've become aware that under a different banner rulers in large parts of the world have returned to the age old policy that land belongs only to the government. The banner is called Marxism. For many years the United Nations has had before it two covenants, the Covenant on Civil and Political rights and the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Both specifically omit the right to own property or to be protected from arbitrary seizure without compensation. Ownership of property is not--according to the covenants--a basic human right. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford steadfastly refused to sign these covenants because of this omission which is so contrary to American tradition. In 1966 there was an effort made to amend the covenants to include property ownership as a human right. It was voted down. Obviously the Socialist and Communist countries could not accept such an affront to their totalitarianism. Right now one of the biggest obstacles to normalizing relations with Castro's Cuba is his seizure of American-owned property without compensation. What is apparently little known by the American people is that President Carter has signed both of these United Nation covenants which, in effect, nullify the inalienable right of an individual to own property--If they are ratified by the United States Senate, United Nations treaties become the law of the land superseding all other laws. We'd all better be ready to write our Senators when these treaties are submitted for ratification. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-03-B5 Production Date 02/20/1978 Book/Page RPtV-273 Audio Youtube? No
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