Understanding the wise words of Ben Franklin

Re: “Patriot Act has effect on things locally.”

Mr. Gething. My, my, the sky is falling. Chicken Little can’t,

won’t, understand that the Patriot Act, for all the chickens in the

coop, was honestly affected to help stem a kind of terrorism

unforeseen by our founding fathers, and, yes, that includes the

measured misquote and misunderstanding of Benjamin Franklin by

Gething: “Those who would give up essential liberties for a measure

of security deserve neither liberty nor security.” And again, the

problem with Gething’s kind of thinking is that if you change or

alter just a little of the facts in a veiled attempt to prove your

point, then no one will question it. But Franklin more accurately

meant and said, “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a

little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Franklin was talking about giving up a lot of liberty to obtain

only “a little temporary safety.” He wasn’t talking about the

establishment of a long-term safety for an entire country that would

provide a lot of safety from the threat of a kind of mayhem that

could and has been visited on the United States by international

terrorists, a kind of insidious terror that he could not then fathom.

Of course, overall, both Franklin and Gething are rightly concerned

that an out-of-control arm of government can be anathema to the

Constitution. And, as I recall, Franklin was then only talking about

the 2nd Amendment right to firearms, of which, I’ll bet, Gething

opposes. But neither the balancing acts of the Supreme Court nor the

evidence required for it to act, has yet to be seen. On the one hand,

if terrorists do achieve another 9-11, the Gethings of the country

would cry out so loud that the Bush administration was inept, and yet

would still moan and complain no matter what kind of internal

anti-terrorist programs were put in place.

What Mr. Gething should spend his time on is trying to come up

with a better plan to combat terrorism that could destroy all of

Glendale by a single terrorist act, rather than spouting the same old

tired liberal mantra devoid of any realistic alternative.

So, there you have it.

RICHARD M. HOLBROOK

Sylmar