Freedom Flees in Terror

Paul McMasters of the Freedom Forum has an editorial about the various and many restrictions on freedom that are following in the wake of the September 11 crashes.

united states, the police state

[fault0]

well, I think that we are sliding down the path to becoming a police state. It's actually pretty popular right now.

Don't beleive me? look at the latest gallup polls here [gallup.com].

What was particularily shocking was this:

Requiring Arabs, including those who are U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID.

49% supported this, and 49% opposed it. That is incredibly insane. Perhaps those 49% who supported it should be especially identified for being morons :).

Banned songs

[terri rolle]

Amongst the numerous inflammatory examples used in the editorial was this:

a radio network circulated a list of songs that would be problematic to play

I'm sick of seeing this [snopes2.com] blown out of proportion over and over again. It's not an infringement of our civil liberties. It's just a radio network making recommendations to its stations on how not to offend the fuck out of their listeners the day after five thousand people were murdered. As far as I can tell that's just good business sense combined with a little sensitivity.

My feelings as follows:

[mrBoB]

I saw someone quoted Ben Franklin somewhere, might have been here, but one line summarizes my feelings:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

- Benjamin Franklin

This is America. Our nation was creating holding "(many) truths to be self-evident." These notions are intended to transcend time, most importantly that every man be free (of religous persecution, to have viewpoints not necessarily in line with the current gov't trends, etc.) to be free enough to pursue what he desires (make money, run his own church, whatever). When we enact LAWS _restricting_ these freedoms, we are IMHO throwing 300+ years of fighting. My fellow Americans need to learn there are things more valuable to _Humankind_ than life. The freedom to choose. People in many other nations don't get _choice_. Choice comes with responsibilty and perhaps we've been irresponsible (for the past 50-100 years!) but we should really do something to change. We have a unique opportunity here, amidst this travesty... One of the things we must keep focused on, however, is that which allowed us to get this far. We must observe and protect the Constitution of the United States. Keep in mind, the President (and pretty much anyone else who serves the Fed Gov't) _swears_ to do so on Inauguration day.

just my 0.02

-Bob