More concerns about freedom

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views December 16, 2002]

Phyllis Schlafly, of the Eagle Forum, is very much concerned about the impact on American civil liberties by such legal instruments as the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act, and the Total Information Awareness program. She wants to know why obvious steps to secure safety, that require no special new laws, are still not taken, long after the events of 9/11:

Unfortunately, the government is doing little to close our borders to a new crop of terrorists while using terrorism as an excuse to monitor the daily lives and interfere with the civil liberties of law-abiding U.S. citizens. . . .

Why haven't the U.S. bureaucrats who admitted these terrorists been punished or fired, and why haven't we plugged the loopholes in our borders and visa-granting system that allowed these fatal mistakes? Instead of taking immediate and vigorous steps to exclude, locate and deport the undesirables, the government is moving forward with surveillance of all Americans, pretending that all law-abiding U.S. citizens are suspect. . . .

Why hasn't anybody been fired for releasing sniper suspect John Lee Malvo into the U.S. population even though the law mandated his deportation as one who entered our country illegally as a stowaway? Why hasn't anybody been fired for changing Malvo's status from the accurate designation given him by the U.S. Border Patrol?

Why is the government conducting an investigation of Border Patrol agent Keith Olson, the one who got Malvo's fingerprints, which were the key to identifying him as one of the snipers who traveled the country on a killing rampage? Why, instead of going after the INS bureaucrats responsible for the Malvo mistake, is the government criticizing Border Patrol agent Daryl Schermerhorn for appearing on Bill O'Reilly's television program and telling the truth that "it's nothing new for the INS to release criminals on the streets and for them to commit murder."

Carol Norris, writing for CounterPunch, laments the death of the Fourth Amendment:

The Fourth Amendment, an unwavering champion of our right to privacy, died on 18 November 2002. The amendment, adopted by the convention of states on 17 September 1787, was 215 [years old]. The 4th tirelessly fought to guarantee that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The Fourth has had health issues over the years, struggling with those that have tried to weaken it. Most recently, it received a life-threatening blow from the USA Patriot Act. But lower courts, concerned about possible civil liberties abuses, tended to the injury by trying to curtail some of the Act's power. On the 18th, the ruling of the lower courts was overridden by an all but unknown court: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review . . .

And so, with the courage characteristic of its life, the Fourth succumbed to this ruling at its home in the pages of the Constitution, surrounded by friends and loved ones. . . . The Fourth was loved and respected by the citizens throughout the US that it protected. "How will I ever feel comfortable exercising my First amendment rights without the protections of the Fourth?" asked one mourner, crying into her copy of the Constitution. Fearing repercussions, she refused to state her name.

Congressman Dick Armey, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC (12/6/02):

This is a time of great urgency in my thinking on this. I believe that we must now recommit ourselves to what I consider to be the greatest promise of America. We must recommit ourselves to that promise which was so eloquently put when they said, Secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

The blessings of liberty. Personal, individual right is what America is about and what sets America aside. I believe those blessings of liberty are at peril in America today. I believe we are in danger of having liberty crowded out by what seems to be another more urgent concern, and that is the concern for personal safety.

Historically, we have always had the luxury of sitting safely here at home in America and sending our heroes abroad to fight for freedom. But today we face an insidious threat that comes right into our neighborhood. We live with it every day, this threat of terrorism. Our need, our anxiety about personal security is at a level that we've never seen before in America. And for the first time in America, we call upon ourselves, each and every single one of us to be a hero for freedom right here at home, where I live in my community.

And so the courage of America is being called upon more than at any time in my lifetime . And what I fear I hear is an echo chamber of voices in America that are saying, Give us greater dominion over your personal liberties and we will make you secure. Now, I can tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be safe if we have a cop on every corner. We will be safe if we have a spy camera in every home. We will be safer if we have an elaborate system by which we, in the ordinary business of life, spy on one another and report it to the proper authorities. We will probably be safer if we have a national identification card. We may be safer, in fact, if we can snoop on the Internet and read everybody's e-mail.

There are many authorities that we can extend through the government of this country that will make us safer, but will we be free? Once again, we are restored to that oldest adage, The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We, the people, had better keep an eye on we, the people--that is, our government. Not out of contempt or lack of appreciation or disrespect, but out of a sense of guardianship. How do you use these tools we have given you to make us safe in such a manner that will preserve our freedoms?

That is a duty to our very essence as a nation--who we are. What is it about us that has set us apart in the history of the world? It's our love for freedom. As I said earlier, freedom is no policy for the timid, and my plaintive plea to all my colleagues that remain in this government, as I leave it is, for your sake, for my sake, for Heaven's sake, don't give up on freedom.

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