What about "Rights?"

   The word "rights" is used everywhere as if everybody knows exactly what it means.  Yet this a very important counterfeit that is used to sell all sorts of programs to an unsuspecting public.
   The founding fathers intended certain entitlements to be intrinsically attached to individuals.  These rights are generally described in the Declaration of Independence as "...life, liberty amd the pursuit of happiness."  They are more specifically defined in the U.S.  Constitution in the Bill or Rights and subsequently expanded or clarified in amendments to the Constitution.
   The counterfeit of this word creeps in when it is applied to groups.  It sounds so reasonable to identify the "rights" of statistical groups based on some common characteristics such as race, ethnic orientation, legal status, sexual orientation, gender, etc., etc.  So we are told, for example, that we are violating the "rights" of a black man if we object to his ideas, or prefer a definition of marriage that does not include members of the same sex.
   "Groups" are said to be "scientific" because researchers identified certain common features of people and gave them a name so that their specific "rights" could be legislated.  What has resulted is a bewildering soup of laws and regulations that, in many cases, violate the true constitutional rights of individuals as defined in the U.S. Constitution.  We are told that 25% of prison inmates are black while black people represent only 12% of the U.S. population.  This large disparity can only be explained by racial discrimination.  Yet if the individual cases are reviewed, there is virtually no evidence to support this conclusion.
   The point is that to attain "equal justice before the law" only the individual may be considered.  Attaching the person to a group pollutes the legal process and either wrongfully exonerates the individual and/or violates the rights of the innocent members of the civil society who have been the victim of some crime.
   How about it, seekers?  Do we have the guts to call this by its real name: a gratuitous counterfeit of what our founding fathers intended for us?