BRIGITTE Dwyer (Letters 6/10) demonstrates how the vital concept of rights has been degraded.
Many things are valuable in society, including civility in public discourse, convenient transport for the disabled, and goodwill towards men and women. But these are not rights.
Rights are those essential values that the government must protect, the most fundamental being the right to live free from initiated force, which means free to use one's property and speak one's mind as one sees fit.
There can be no right to violate rights, no right to force a company to supply customers goods or services, or to silence a journalist.
The law that was used to silence Andrew Bolt is a shocking travesty that must be repealed.
(The Australian letters 7/10/2011)
