“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
— Benjamin Franklin, 1775
This quote is one of significance in post-9/11 America. With almost daily news reports of TSA agents abusing passengers at airports, railway stations, and bus terminals, warrantless invasive searches of personal effects at border crossings, and reports in the last few years of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies violating the privacy of average American’s, all in the name of safety, it begs the question: “Is it all worth it?”
Americans have been convinced that all of these things are just for our own good. But has it really made us any more safe? Recent reports seem to indicate that these measures have not.
We have given up (willingly or unwillingly) the rights to privacy that the Constitution guarantees us as Americans. As a result, we are less free, and truly less secure. We have, as a nation, attempted to protect ourselves from the threat of terrorism and have traded it for being terrorized by government employees at the airport, hindered in our ability to come and go freely.
Having given up our liberty so easily, are we truly deserving of its blessing?
Pause and consider.