Michael Perelman wrote:
>This morning's events will spell the end of much of our remaining civil
>liberties.
This is too alarmist for me, given my reading of the situation. I expect a
further weakening of our civil liberties, but not "the end."
Andrew Hagen writes:>As for civil liberties, sometimes they must be
sacrificed to preserve public safety. This is such a time. The point we can
make is that any limitation on liberty should be temporary until the danger
passes.<
Frankly, I think that our civil liberties have already been restricted too
much in the US. (There are more and more videotaping spy cameras watching
us...) Even in terms of preventing hijackings, they've gone far into the
region of diminishing returns. And they couldn't even prevent the
hijackings that led to the plane-crash attacks. And we should remember that
when civil liberties get squeezed, the left, the poor, and minorities
(including Arab Americans) get it in the neck even if they had nothing to
do with the problem. If the "Pearl Harbor" rhetoric continues and the US
goes to war (against whom?), union rights will be further restricted.
The only thing to do is to push for greater civil liberties (the ACLU's
official philosophy). Whenever people advocate the weakening of our
liberties, we have to remember Plato's question: "who guards the
Guardians?" Why should we trust the police, the FBI, etc., to do a good job
rather than covering up their own sins, feathering their own nests, etc.?
Michael continues:
>I assume that Bush will get whatever spending he wants for a
>response.
alas, that's true.
> The U.S. has a record of lashing out at the wrong targets --
>for example, the Sudan pharmaceutical plant.
We should remember that the US is one of the big purveyors of state
terrorism, often using cruise missiles.
>The left is probably in greater disarray for this than anybody else.
Isn't the left too small to be in disarray?
BTW, if President Bush's National Missile Defense (Star Wars) were already
in place, this couldn't have happened. ;-)
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
