"What great luck for rulers that people do not think."
Yes, 9-11-01 was a terrible event and we must find and punish those responsible. And, sadly, there WILL be others.
But we must not punish ourselves and those who come after us by killing the idea that was America and for which idea so many have already paid the ultimate price. Should THAT happen, America the PLACE will no longer be worth saving. What’s to save?
Although Bush has apparently turned thumbs down to the NATIONAL ID CARD some in government have lusted after for decades, trust me, it WILL – like some perverted Phoenix -- rise from the ashes of the NEXT tragedy. The fact is that IF government at the state level – often commanded to be so by the feds -- had NOT been so free and easy with, for example, DRIVER’S LICENSES and a number of other “official” documents (which we now know several of the murderers secured from various states), it’s possible their miserable lives might have been complicated and their plot foiled.
But here’s the more fascinating question: WHY THE HELL WERE SOME OF THESE GUYS EVEN IN THIS COUNTRY? Much to the FBI’s and CIA’s consternation, it has come out that a number of them had long histories of suspicion of complicity in OTHER terror attacks and DIRECT ties to bin Laden.
It is common knowledge that the INS (ask any of the guys in the field!) had its hands tied in rounding up and deporting Hispanics ON ORDERS FROM ON HIGH to “go easy.” I wonder how much of THAT attitude slopped over to ALL aliens, legal and illegal.
And isn’t it interesting that we have heard so little lately about AMNESTY for illegals? And the operative term here is “heard.”
If the tragic events of 9-11 prompt a long overdue review of our entire immigration policy, the 5,000+ may not have died in vain.
Now the same government that so miserably failed in its prime Constitutional duty to protect America from all enemies, both foreign and domestic by allowing 5,000 of them to be slaughtered like helpless cattle – after we have ALREADY handed over huge chunks of our freedoms – may now be poised to seize the remainder. That that seizure is with the acquiescence of a majority of the citizens here DOES NOT make it acceptable. That is why America was INTENDED to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC and NOT the DEMOCRACY the Founding Fathers abhorred.
The strong, self-reliant men who created this place understood the danger of trading freedom for “security.”
"Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry to the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly, Nov. 11, 1755
Let me conclude by reminding you that the Nazi concentration camps and Soviet gulags were some of the most secure places on the planet -- for all BUT the inmates.
Is THAT what YOU want for YOUR kids and grand-kids?
Let's work the problem, people -- starting with thinking it all the way through.
Instead of the greater information, that these leaders propose to eliminate the Fourth Amendment protection for all citizens.