10/22/03
Individual Liberties in America
	America has always been a champion of individual civil liberties, as the oldest working democracy, we have incorporated the teachings of John Locke and Thomas Paine to establish the civil liberties code that we hold today. For Americans individual liberty has always been a philosophical building block to help establish who they are in the world. An early example would be a cowboy coming off of the range, this man would not be concerned with big brother watching him, because this man is accustomed to making his own decisions and upholding his own morality there would be no pause to consider the government’s feelings in his actions, because he feels his actions are his own. However a troubling reality to the world of individual liberties is of course that we are losing them. More and more of our decision making power is being placed into the governments hands. As this happens our maneuvering room for decision making becomes smaller and smaller, and the sad thing is that few even take the time to notice. Our liberties, our ideals are withering away while the average American turns their backs to the problem.
	So now one must ask; why is this happening? Why are we electing to forfeit our individual liberties? The answer of course is security. We are forfeiting these rights in the name of security, and in doing so are reducing the quality that makes us American, that makes us a Democracy.  This is by no means a new trend; the process began long ago with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His radical new deal policies began the fatal sacrifice of our individual liberties. The assigning of a number, and a file to every U.S. citizen, are a direct result of the policies he implemented. He tells the masses, sign up for social security; you’ll receive your check starting at sixty five. What he didn’t tell them, was that in signing up to have the government take care of you, you would be giving up much of your right to privacy by having a file, and having no idea what is on it. He also began to tax incomes; no-one ever saw that coming. When the program of income taxing began it was to be for the wealthiest one percent of the population. I hardly believe that it was meant to tax roughly twenty percent of your check initially. To play devils advocate for a moment, I don’t disagree with the volatile nature of taxation. It is needed to be sure because with our tax dollars we buy civilization. My argument comes when the American people unknowingly sacrifice individual liberties permanently to quickly fix a problem such as the depression then, and terrorism now. Few may realize that once we give a liberty away it is incredibly difficult to reclaim it.
	What liberties have Americans lost since the September 11th terrorist attacks? The list may be astonishing. As of the September 11th attacks, the American public has lost the right to a speedy trial, the right to liberty, the freedom of information, the freedom of association, the right to legal representation, freedom from unreasonable searches, and parts of our freedom of speech. The right to a speedy trial has been bypassed by the bureaucrats in Washington by passing a bill saying that the government may imprison an American citizen indefinitely without a trial. Our right to liberty has been tarnished by now allowing the government to keep a suspect without having definite charges filed against them. The freedom of information has been restricted by the encouraging of bureaucrats to resist public record requests. Americans’ freedom of association has now been impeded upon by the government. Now government agencies can monitor religious and political institutions without even suspecting criminal activity to assist a terror investigation.  Legal representation has been devastated by the United States government’s new ability to monitor federal prison conversations, thus violating attorney client privilege. An inexcusable violation is seen by the bureaucracy’s ability to now seize papers, and effects without probable cause. And finally, the government may prosecute any keeper of records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation. (pg. 2)
        Since September 11th 2001, Americans have been throwing their liberties to the national government at an astounding and unprecedented rate. We are doing it without a fight, without as much as a serious upheaval. If you don’t agree with our politicians politics, you are unpatriotic. Average Americans are now content to live in isolation keeping to themselves, and leaving the important decisions up to the government they have forgot exactly what it is to be American. This is a precedent because the last time I checked the constitution, it said “a government of the people, for the people” Not a government of the government and for the government, you see what I am getting at. The fundamental question that now befalls us is, was the September 11th attack in itself the reason for this renewed destruction of individual liberties? Are Americans really that afraid of terrorism? Or is it that there is now a convenient excuse to give the government the control it desires. We will have to wait for this new wave of nationalism to sift through to ascertain the extent of the self-imposed damage.  In any event, the burden of passing along our individual liberties falls to the individual, not the government; in this we must recognize and accept our role as Americans. We as Americans must realize that we are the only line of defense between our individual liberties and the government and it is our duty to defend them for the sake of our offspring, and the sake of our own dignity. I leave you with a phrase from Thoreau stating how he believed the best government operated. “That government is best which governs least”. (pg 375)
	




















Lane, Charles. “Restricting civil liberties vs. fighting against terror” The Washington Post. (Date?). pg. 1-2
Moser, Joice and Ann Watters. Creating America. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2002. (pg375-81)