I suggest you focus a little less on how free you "feel" and look a little more closely at what government's actually doing, and where that'll be taking us. When we separated from England, most colonists I think "felt" pretty free. The excesses that we read about today only really affected a small minority of them, and the "intolerable" taxes were actually considerably lower than what people in England had to pay. But it was the patterns they saw that led them to revolt. Of course, today we don't have to "revolt" to set things right, but we do have to wake up a little.
As for "balancing" freedom and safety, I tend to think that they work with each other far more than they work against each other. But in any case, there simply comes a point that when we surrender too much to the government, we lose the ability to decide where the proper "balance" should be. Simply saying, as Rusty does, that if you're not a criminal you shouldn't have to worry about what government does, is nothing but a green light for them to take everything from us.
I really don't use feel and I do analyze things quite throughly and have come to the conclusions that I spoke earlier. I have seen what the Government's actually doing so much so I served in the USMC (3rd LAR) 29 Palms CA for 5 years thus allowing the free flowing of ideas to take place. No not me myself nut self sacrificing people like myself. (Not looking for a pat on the back)....I do agree with you in some areas though that people do need to wake up like you say and the green light comment at the end so see we can come to a consensus about some things. :)