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Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens� lives. This doesn�t stop governments, including our own, from seeking more control over and intrusion into our lives. As one Member of Congress stated to the press last week, �people who don�t want to be searched don�t need to come on Capitol grounds.� What an insult! The Capitol belongs to the American people who pay for it, not to Congress or the police.
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Every generation must resist the temptation to believe that it lives in the most dangerous time in American history. The threat of Islamic terrorism is real, but it is not the greatest danger ever faced by our nation. This is not to dismiss the threat of terrorism, but rather to put it in perspective. Those who seek to whip the nation into a frenzy of fear do a disservice to a country that expelled the British, fought two world wars, and stared down the Soviet empire.
Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
Originally posted by The Merovingian
Just imagine how things will change when the next staged 'terrorist' attack takes place and they ramp up Patriot Act II.
The USA is now well on its way to becoming the world's pre-eminent example of a big brother totalitarian fascist police state.
Originally posted by crmanager
Answer the question.
What freedoms are being taken away?
Originally posted by crmanager
What Suspension? You mean for the guy wanting to blow up the Columbus MAll?
Arrests? When? Tell me where it happened?
Unreasonable search? What is unreasonable?
.
When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long
Originally posted by crmanager
Hawk, you are right but...
The SAME (figuratively) rights were suspended during the CIVIL WAR. People freaked and everything went back to normal.
These are not normal times. We have to realize freedom is a living thing. It shrinks and grows.
We just need to realize that.
Originally posted by deevee
Sometimes the best intentions can have the "wackiest" consequences. (And I never would have dreamed that Canada could have a "freedom lesson" for the U.S.)
Originally posted by crmanager
Answer the question.
What freedoms are being taken away?