They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin
:
Posted on 06/11/2002 6:39:05 AM PDT by Boonie Rat
Poll: Four in Five Americans Would Give Up Some Freedom for More Security
By Jennifer L. Brown Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 11, 2002
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Four in five Americans would give up some freedoms to gain security and four in 10 worry terrorists will harm them or their family, a new Gallup poll shows.
About one-third of those polled favor making it easier for authorities to access private e-mail and telephone conversations. More than 70 percent are in favor of requiring U.S. citizens to carry identification cards with fingerprints, and 77 percent believe all Americans should have smallpox vaccinations.
"It was amazing the percentage of people who are willing to give up freedom to get back some sense of personal security," said Elaine Christiansen, senior research director for The Gallup Organization. "These aren't people who were necessarily near the twin towers, near the Pentagon, near the Murrah building. These are average people."
The telephone survey, conducted in March, included 934 people across the country. Researchers also polled about 500 people in each of three cities where terrorist attacks occurred - New York City, Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma City - to compare results with the general population survey.
The poll showed 8 percent of Americans are very worried and 31 percent are somewhat worried that they or someone in their family will become victims of a terrorist attack in the United States. In New York City, the level of worry is higher - 19 percent said they are very worried and 34 percent said they are somewhat worried.
Washington, D.C, and Oklahoma City reported levels of fear close to the national average.
Scientists involved in the poll said they were not surprised many Americans remain fearful after Sept. 11.
"The magnitude of the event was just so profound," said Carol North, a psychiatry professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who said talk of the war in Afghanistan, airline security and terrorist threats is propelling the fear.
The study was co-sponsored by The University of Oklahoma psychiatry department through a grant from the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The main survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, while the margin of error for the survey in the three cities is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 60 percent of New York City residents think the threat of a terrorist attack in their city is greater than it is in any other big city.
Barely 40 percent of respondents believe the city is safer than it had been four years ago, a decrease of 20 percent from those polled in August. Even so, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that given a choice, they would prefer to be living in the city four years from now than any other place.
The poll, conducted by telephone in English or Spanish June 4 through Sunday, surveyed 940 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Boonie Rat
MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin
:
You can't have freedom without security and with all due respect to old Ben Franklin, you can't have liberty without safety.
And I don't comsider myself, or the American morons because they so happen to disagree with your foolish nonsense. Anymore personal insults? If so, stuff it.
They have been giving it up for more than 200 hundred years. This just continues the trend.
And I've yet to see a federal "sacrifice" truly short term.
If you consider those two sentences as personal insults, here's more: freedom of opinion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of speech are freedoms not eligible for confiscation.
Enjoy the stuffing.
And I don't comsider myself, or the American morons because they so happen to disagree with your foolish nonsense. Anymore personal insults? If so, stuff it.Whoa!
Feeling a little touchy this morning, are we?!
While no official state of war was declared by Congress, America is in a state of war, nevertheless. It was attacked and Congress has authorized the President to take the appropriate military response and protect and defend the US.
>>>I didn't see anything in the article where it was specified that "security measures" would be at all temporary.
The Patriot Act has sunset clauses contained in its legislation. The current lifting of certain restrictions on the FBI and CIA, should be welcomed by all American's.
I'd like to know, exactly what freedoms you've lost to date?
We are at war. We are under genuine threat of attack from within our borders by vile and ruthless enemies. Most sensible people realize this. Only a few libertarian loons get hung up on the formalities.
The first task of government is to preserve life. Liberty is irrelevant to a corpse.
Damned Constitution anyway. Just because it details explicitly what and how the government is to work doesn't mean we have to follow those "formalities".
Boonie Rat
MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66
1- America is in a state of war.
2- You're confusing reasonable inconvienences with the loss of freedoms.
3- I never said freedom of speech was a freedom eligible for confiscation.
4- And you have every right to be as arrogant and ignorant as you want. Makes no difference to me.
I'm not the one pissed off at the world, you are. So enjoy stuffing that, bucko!
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