Regarding some of the comments on the previous post, we must turn to one of our Founding Fathers, the man who graces the $100 bill, Benjamin Franklin, who so rightly stated:
"Those who would give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty
nor security."
I would rather see multiple terrorist attacks per year, killing thousands of people, forcing the United States to rethink it's stance on my global issues than lose the liberties we have fought for as Americans for the last 250 years. The restrictions on travel and freedom that the Bush and Clinton Administrations have added in the last 10-15 years are a copout. They show that America is so stubborn, so weak to go after the terrorists in the proper way that instead they go against their own citizens. I'm sure if we rounded up and tortured enough people, we would catch a few terrorists. But what would you think if an innocent person in your family was detained and given access to no lawyers, family, or due process?
I'm sure that many of you would agree with me, you would not like to encounter checkpoints at the border with a neighboring state, or at the border with a neighboring city, where police can hound you for papers and a reason for your travels. We as Americans have the right to travel anonymously where ever we want. We have staunchly ridiculed the Soviet Union for asking every traveller "your papers please, comrade" but how far are we from this situation? Airlines are already forced to ID everyone, despite the fact that the 19 Saudis had perfectly legitimate papers and flew with their valid, government issued ID.
As for the 2nd Amendment (it was pointed out in a comment), America was built on a system of checks and balances. The 2nd Amendment is the citizens check against the government, which our Founding Fathers gave us. They knew what it was like for a government to amass too much control and to shit on their citizens. If this ever happened in our country again, and storm troopers were knocking at our doors, at least we wouldn't go out without a fight. Not that we are anywhere near this situation... yet.
2 comments:
You're right about America not doing enough to stop terrorism. They should be rounding up Arabs and torturing them for other terrorists. Even if we do this, we still need security. I would give up some of my liberties if it meant to save my life (but especially not the 2nd amendment). We're in a war now and things need to be done to protect the citizens of America.
hey, did you ever hear back from you know who after you messaged him?
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