Call me paranoid (rather, call me Jeber...you may refer to me as paranoid), but I'm beginning to see a trend in the erosion of our basic civil rights under the guise of homeland security. We are becoming more isolationistic in our opinions, and more restrictive in our policies. In fact, I'm coming to the conclusion that the 60's were the high point in our country as regards concerns over personal freedom. Ever since then, we've been sliding down that long, slippery slope of reduced personal freedom and rethinking freedom of the press, all in the name of security. Is it necessary, in order to ensure the safety of our country, to destroy our freedom? I can easily imagine a slow, well disguised implementation of a police state with the blessing of the American people sold to us under the banner of safety and security. We won't notice until it's too late that it also involves the surrender of our personal freedoms. Anything the "terrorists", the new boogymen of this century, can use for their own ends will be regulated and controlled by the government...speech, the press, the internet...almost every means of communication will be seen as a potential weapon of the terrorists, therefor subject to tightened oversight. And it will happen in small ways, the introduction of a seemingly innocent bill here, the ammendment of a right there...nothing to get much attention.
So are we going to destroy our country in the effort to preserve it? Only if you let them.