Freedom Trumps Fear

How much liberty is America willing to sacrifice in hopes of avoiding another week like the one just endured?

It’s not surprising that Tuesday, just after suicidal terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, 66% of the people who responded to a Washington Post/ABC News Poll said they “would be willing to give up some of the liberties we have in this country in order for the government to crack down on terrorism.”

But which freedoms would they relinquish? The freedom to speak their minds? To practice any religion they desire? To associate with whomever they choose? The freedom to sleep at night without fear of overzealous law officers kicking down their doors?

The tendency to capitulate to terror is all too human, and governments are all too willing to abrogate freedoms during times of national fear. As fear again focuses the never-ending U.S. debate over rights and responsibilities, citizens must make hard decisions about how they want to live.

One key problem always has been determining who is entitled to rights--in distinguishing “us” from “them.” The Exclusion Act of 1882 blocked Chinese immigration. After World War I, the government arrested leftists without warrants and deported legal immigrants. During WWII, the government interned Japanese Americans.

Another problem is trying to differentiate protections from intrusions. After Timothy McVeigh’s attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, the government tightened the reins on liberties, expanded law enforcement’s ability to wiretap and gave the secretary of State authority to designate groups as terrorists.

At this moment, when Americans are especially vulnerable to fear, it is important to recognize the importance of liberty and resist any efforts to use calamity as the rationale to further erode rights.

Shortly after the war that created this nation, Benjamin Franklin said: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Liberty is this nation’s sacred tenet, the ideal that inspired the founding fathers’ great experiment in self-government. It’s what brings people here today.

Terrorists and their organizations absolutely must be eliminated and the countries that harbor them should be punished. No one who threatens national security should be allowed to waltz across U.S. borders to visit, study or work. But the domestic battle against terrorism must not become an assault on this nation’s values.

Should Americans submit to more inconvenience at airports? Absolutely. Must they make new sacrifices? You bet. But a retreat from individual freedoms? Never. That’s the only answer that honors those who died last week.