We, as Americans, talk at length about rights. We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. We have a right to free speech. We have the right to remain silent. We have the right to worship in our own way. We have the right to not worship at all. We have the right to travel anywhere in the country without papers. We have the right to govern ourselves where the federal government is silent. We have the right to vote, to assemble, to bear arms, and to have a fair trial with a jury of our piers. We have the right to face our accusers. Even when found guilty, we still have the right to be treated like a human being, still have the right to an appeal, and still have the right to receive medical treatment, get fresh air, and watch television.

As a conservative, naturally the rights I fight for on this blog are rated differently than the rights which a liberal blogger might rate them — but we still fight for them.

We fight for state’s rights. We fight for equal rights. We fight for civil rights. We fight for human rights. We fight for patient’s rights. We fight for the right to do what we want with our own bodies. We fight for the rights of the unborn. We fight for the right to privacy. We fight for our right to party.

But these rights, all of them, are meaningless when you’re dead. You don’t need the right to vote when you’re dead. You don’t need the right to free speech when you’re dead. You don’t need the right to do anything when you’re dead.

One right stands out above all others. It is the ultimate right. It is the right without which all others are meaningless: the right to self-preservation. There is nothing more basic, nothing more raw, nothing more primal, nothing more human, nothing more irrepressible than the fight for survival.

When faced with a situation we believe to be life threatening, we react on a most instinctual level. We fight or we flee. When backed into a corner, we, as human beings, have only one option.

I neither endorse nor condone what goes on in the ongoing battle between Israelites and Palestinians – but I do understand it. They have lived under the constant threat of death for more than three generations now. They have endured lifetimes of fear, propaganda, bombings, incursions, invasions, and had the international community turn their backs upon them throughout it all. They see themselves as being alone, surrounded by enemies. They can’t leave their homeland. They lack the means to achieve a final victory and the only thing the peace process has brought them is political turmoil, broken promises, and more death.

It’s not a reason to stop trying. It’s not an excuse. It’s not a even reason to forgive. But it’s an understanding. And that’s a start.