A Scientology friend of mine told be this story: "I was in Berlin when the wall came down. I met an old man who had been a young boy in East Germany in 1930. He remembered that he had lived in a free country at that time. People had rights. They voted in elections that were meaningful. But then the Nazis took power, and suddenly people did not have rights. They lived in fear of their government. And this government was replaced by a Communist regime. And he knew he was not free, he could only remember having lived in a free country, many years ago. Now he was a very old man, and he was so very grateful that he might live his last few remaining years in a truly free country." The moral of this story is that personal rights can be lost. This is especially true if they are not really known and understood in the first place.

There is something called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is an international agreement, signed by nearly every nation, including the United States. It describes your rights, under international law. A website is available that describes the 30 Articles of Human Rights.