Posted on 12/29/2003 9:18:12 AM PST by NorCoGOP
MESA, Ariz. -- There appears to be a trend emerging in modern Western society. It is something that has been noticeable in the past, but is something that I think has become more prominent and disturbing in recent years. It is the habit we have developed of sacrificing personal freedom and convenience in favor of increased security, almost always in reaction to an isolated incident which we are afraid to treat as such.
Periodically, and with alarming frequency, something tragic will happen that will be greatly publicized. Perhaps this event injures or kills a person or many people; and, whether it is the media-driven American people demanding a change or elected officials eager to look like they are making a difference, precautions are put in place which restrict those very American people to the point that such an event recurring is nearly impossible.
The most dramatic of these events, with the most far-reaching internal effects, has been the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. I recall when our leaders assured us that the best way to fight the terrorists ourselves was to continue to live our lives normally and enjoy the freedoms that our enemies would wish to take away from us.
But our fear became a far greater opponent to our freedoms than any band of calculating psychopaths could ever achieve. And so things began to change.
As if to protect us from the inevitable eventuality of further hijackings, soldiers with machine guns took the place of obnoxious airport metal detector attendants. All luggage needed to be unpacked, studied, and repacked before transport on a passenger jet. My small Swiss army knife was instantly transformed from a personal convenience to a deadly weapon for terrorist use. Racial profiling became a very real law enforcement technique. And I can't get on a plane without taking my shoes off at the terminal.
Is this our normal life? Am I safer in my flight because my family and friends can't come and meet me at the gate? How has America gotten through 70 years of commercial flight without needing machine guns at every terminal? Are someone's socks really a threat to the lives of everybody on that plane?
As if this wasn't enough, our leaders drafted and almost unanimously passed the USA Patriot Act, 342 pages of knee-jerk legislation which has been adequately covered by this publication. For our own good, they removed any privacy that we think we have in favor of allowing the government to take any measures it deems necessary to discern any malicious intent any of us may harbor. I believe that all who study this act will be stunned at the constitutional rights the act takes away.
I don't want to be that safe. And an event occurring doesn't necessarily make it any more likely to occur in the future. Someone blowing up a plane doesn't mean that "people blow up planes now." I don't expect it. I am not afraid of it. And no amount of gun-toting servicemen or phone-tapping FBI agents will make me less afraid.
No amount of security is worth my freedoms, nor is it worth my ability to lead a comfortable, normal life. We have no alternative but to build our world to accommodate normal people. We can and should take reasonable precautions to protect ourselves from the dangerously insane. I think metal detectors are a great idea. But at some point we have done all that we can reasonably be expected to do and can only hope for the best.
For over 200 years, people have been giving their lives to obtain and protect necessary freedoms for the people of this country; because freedom is possibly the only commodity more precious than life itself.
I'll concede the country is rife with over-reaction, and resultant legislation to prevent every boo-boo, but 9-1-1 is NOT an isolated incident. OBL and friends have been after us since the '93 WTC bombing, and the Cole, and maybe OK City, and we KNOW he wants to do more. You are a fool, sir, if you think it's time to drop our guard.
What nonsense, the societies of tyrannies do not suffer thru anarchy (ie Saddm's Iraq, E. Germany, etc) until the end game.. In the Soviet Union the gov't ran out of cash and lost its nerve and its moral authority.
Oh, and we're not talking about an authoitorian State here either. Geesh, take a sedative!
They also demand electronic access to customers' bank accounts, which is why I don't use PayPal.
I don't know of anyone who thinks we should drop our guard. It is a matter of what that guard should be that is a matter of disagreement.
The Soviet Union had moral authority?
Taken one step further, what country's government has moral authority?
Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.
If all alcohol is removed from planes, and all flyers are given a breathalyzer before boarding, I'll agree with you. Drunks and guns don't mix.
I think it's illegal in most places to drink while carrying a gun anyway -- unless you're a cop. And it shouldn't be difficult to enforce on a plane. The stewards will know who's carrying.
"What we can say with some confidence is that allowing more people to carry guns does not cause an increase in crime. In Florida, where 315,000 permits have been issued, there are only five known instances of violent gun crime by a person with a permit. This makes a permit-holding Floridian the cream of the crop of law-abiding citizens, 840 times less likely to commit a violent firearm crime than a randomly selected Floridian without a permit." ("More Permits Mean Less Crime..." Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19, 1996, Monday, p. B-5)
Privacy for the average law-abiding citizen has been absolutely unaffected by post-9/11 legislation.
There are thousands of innocent Americans who have somehow been placed on terrorist watch lists and can no longer fly. They cannot even get an answer when they inquire about it. If your rights are taken away without legislation being passed, isn't that even worse?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22david+nelson%22+terrorist&spell=1
Priceless
Then you won't mind if I club you on the head and steal your wallet?
So long as you don't mind a .45 round in the forehead.
After he clubs you on the head and steals your wallet, he'll then steal your .45, your SUV, and your pet dog, as well.
No he won't, because I'll be watching the whole thing and I'm a pretty good shot myself.
Who is pathological? The person who has survived enemy attacks who wants to fight back, or the person who has his head stuck in the sand, refusing to believe the threat is real?
Yes, the threat is real. We are discussing how to deal with the threat. If on Sept 11, the pilots and passengers had been allowed to carry arms, the attacks would not have succeeded or even been attempted.
Hey, read my tagline:
I carry and I drink, but I'm not comfortable in an enclosed space with a firearm-alcohol mix. I'd just as soon not risk it and keep booze completely off planes if people are carrying.
We have armed air marshals on planes now when liquor is served. Doesn't that make you uncomfortable?
Sounds like someone who has not had their underwear searched at an airport or been made to drink their own breast milk by federal airport security screeners.
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