Reading Richard Haass’s Book

I’m currently reading Richard Haass’s book The Bill of Obligations. His title plays on the “The Bill of Rights” where he juxtaposes “rights” with “obligations.”

He argues that we are entitled to rights as American citizens while obligations are what we owe our fellow Americans as citizens. He goes on to list ten–as with the Bill of Rights–obligations that we have.

Our rights–such as the First Amendment–are central to American identity, and Haass explores how we have obligations that go beyond our rights.

Brandt Luke Zorn, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I am only a third of the way through the book. I would list it as interesting, but I wouldn’t list it as an intellectual powerhouse. I’ll try to post more when I’ve completed the book.