You are living a happy life in New Mexico. You are quietly watching television with your family when a special news bulletin comes over the TV station. You immediately see that this is not the normal type of news bulletin because there is what looks like a very strange creature on the screen — the only thing familiar is that he is speaking English. He tells you that he and his people have gained control over all of the communications networks in the United States and that everyone had better pay attention to what he has to say. You change the channel and, just as he said, there he is on every station. He begins to speak very loudly. You gather your family around you because you are beginning to worry about what he is going to do. His speech is as follows:

My name is STHGIR. I am from the planet NOITUTITSNOC in another galaxy where the inhabitants are far superior to the beings on the planet EARTH. Just as we have gained control over the communications of the United States, we have the ability to take complete control over every one of your lives. We do not want a war between our planet and yours, but we do want to control some things so that we can live in peace and harmony with you. We have looked at some of your laws and the way your government operates and have found that they give too much freedom to the individual. Therefore, we are going to conduct a survey and try to arrive at a decision about which both you and I will be happy. As I have said, I do not want to take everything away from you. But I cannot allow you to continue to live as you have in the past. Therefore, I am giving you a list of ten of the rights that you now have according to your Constitution. You are to look over the list and decide which of the ten are most important to you. I will allow you to keep FIVE of the ten rights, the five that get the most votes from all the citizens for the United States. You are to rank the rights included in the Bill of Rights in the order in which you would give them up, with 1 being the one you would give up last and 10 being the one you would give up first. After you have completed your ranking, you will receive further instructions.

Complete your ranking and explain why you would keep each of the five rights you chose and why you would forgo the others. Post a short paragraph in which you explain your decision and respond to at least one classmates’ post.