“Those who would give up a few essential freedoms for the sake of safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
-Ben Franklin.
“Give me liberty or give me death.”
-Patrick Henry.
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty then those attending too small a degree of it.”
-Thomas Jefferson.
What is the standard by which a country is to be judged? What measuring stick do you hold up to a nation to determine whether or not that nation is successful? Is it the wealth of a nation? Its influence? Its military might? Do you judge it by its culture, its diversity, its contributions to the world, or by its history and traditions? What is the measure of a successful government?
The United States of America was founded on the ideals of our founding fathers, the ideals first theorized by French and English philosophers, namely John Lock who wrote that the role of government is to protect the individual rights of its people, amongst which are life, liberty, and property. Our founders, Gorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, Paul Revere, to name a few, read this and decided to fight a war to promote, protect, and establish a government which would exist for the purpose of protecting these rights.
In a show of extreme dedication to their cause they stood against the most powerful nation to ever exist, an empire the sun never set upon. Many, including Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry, didn’t live to see the day when the American flag would fly over the capitol of our new nation proudly proclaiming to the world that we are free.
It has become a disturbing, frightening, and heartbreaking trend in this modern day nation when Americans, cowed into submission by war propaganda and the fear of terrorism, reject the ideals our founders, and many who’ve followed in their footsteps, fought and died to protect and become willing to sacrifice basic civil liberties in exchange for the façade of safety and protection. Under the present administration violations of civil liberties have not only become common place but acceptable to a large portion of the population as a necessary tool to combat terrorism and prevent another attack. The most disturbing part of this, however, is that so many people are willing to believe it. It saddens me every time I see someone on the news talk about how we need warrentless wiretapping to keep us safe or how holding foreign prisoners, who may or may not have anything to do with terrorism, in confinement in Cuba without given them a day in court to challenge their imprisonment.
Do we really devalue our liberties and the liberties of others so much? When did it become acceptable to trade our freedoms for safety? When did the saying “give me liberty or give me death” be replaced by “just keep me safe”? Do we believe in what it means to be American anymore? And if not, can we really call ourselves Americans?
The standard for whether a nation is a good one or not is not by its wealth or power, but by its freedom. No nation can ever be great unless it is free, no matter how rich or how big a military it may possess. Our nation for years was a beacon of light in a sea of darkness, calling out to the world, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Our culture is steeped in the tradition of personal liberty. To me it is what sets America apart from every other nation in the world, that we “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
I for one am not willing to sacrifice my American identity to gain the illusion of safety.
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