I am undead. If you are reading this, you are undead, too. And in the view of people such as TX Gov. Rick Perry, our rights are trumped by the hypothetical unborn.
The unborn do not vote. They do not work, or pay taxes. How did they get so many rights over the undead?
Why are the undead, who vote, work, pay taxes, and more, so vilified by the very people for whom we vote, and who are paid by the very taxes we pay?
I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that we, the undead of America, deserve to have solid, guaranteed rights.
To that end, I have written an Undead Manifesto. If you are undead and feel you deserve to have rights, too, please read the Undead Manifesto.
I am of the living, already born, undead, pre-dead, and I matter.
I reserve to myself the following rights, and will fight mightily for them, with words, actions, and every persuasive device at my disposal. I will vote for politicians who believe the undead deserve to live, and our needs trump the hypothetical unborn.
I have the right to live, to be undead for as long as possible, and when it comes time to die, to do so on my terms and with dignity.
I have the right to participate in and receive the blessings of general welfare - affordable healthcare, living wages, domestic tranquility, and liberty for all.
I have the right to receive the health care I need without interference from do-gooders, busybodies, moral naysayers, and grossly uninformed politicians, and the medical procedures and medications prescribed my doctor and agreed to by me trumps the squeamishness and religious convictions of pharmacists, nurses, politicians, insurance companies, and employers.
I have the right to be safe in my own home and in my own country when engaged in lawful activities without being attacked by the people and agencies for whom I pay taxes to support, including but not limited to: police, SWAT teams, politicians, TSA, private security guards hired by public agencies, and others. This includes my body, emails, phone calls, papers, and effects.
I have the right to claim for myself all the privileges and responsibilities of being a US Citizen without having to show proof to each and every person who demands to see my papers or my birth certificate. I already have all the ID I need: social security card, voter ID card. The burden is on the State to verify my citizenship when issuing me those 2 forms of ID, not on me, and I have the right to go about my daily business without interference while the State does the verification.
I have the right to be eccentric without being accused of being a terrorist.
I have the right to adhere to whatever religion I choose or no religion at all without being attacked, villified, constrained, arrested, or harassed.
I have the right to associate with my friends, in large groups or small, at any time, and in any public location (with proper permits) and definitely on my own personal private property.
I have the right to vote, and no obstacle should be placed in my way because some politician doesn't like my skin color, my age (once I achieve my legal majority), my gender, my gender orientation, my sexual orientation, my income, my weight, my religion, my political affiliation, or any other factor about me.
I have the right to fill my cornucopia and keep it full, and to share the bounty as I will.
I have the right to access public areas without discrimination or hindrance, regardless of my physical or mental abilities, my race, my gender, my expressed gender preference, my age (once I've reached my legal majority), my income, my aesthetic appeal (or lack thereof), my weight, my skin color, my sexual orientation, my religion (or lack thereof), my height, or my ancestral ethnicity.
I have the right to a fair, honest, and speedy trial.
I have the right to write manifestos, to browse the internet, to create art, to perform art, to play, to love, and to live.
I have the right to have my needs considered ahead of the needs of any unborn or already dead. I have the right to consider the needs of the already born undead in my family ahead of the potential needs of any unborn or already dead.