Fear
No matter how the impact of 9/11 has been sensationalized, it was not masterminded by the government of a foreign state. It remains a terrorist act perpetrated by a Saudi Islamist fanatic and 19 men armed with box cutting knives.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell doesn’t think it’s terrorists that pose the greatest threat to this country. Recently, Powell said: “People will say it's terrorism, but are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what’s the great threat we’re facing?”
Powell went on to says that he would approach the problem of terrorism differently. He says that this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a terrorist threat, but that we are “taking too much counsel of our fears,” adding we shouldn’t destroy ourselves and use fear for political purposes.
Historically, our government has been more dangerous to our liberty, than the enemy it claims to protect us from.
President John Adams insisted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were necessary, and our ancestors watch him use those acts to jail newspaper editors, for things they wrote about America.
President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the Espionage Act was necessary, and our ancestors watch him use that Act to prosecute 2,000 Americans most of whom were guilty only of advocating peace in a time of war.
FDR insisted that Executive Order 9066 was necessary to save American lives. He use that order to imprison and pauperize 110,000 Americans while General DeWitt, told Congress: “It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen. He’s still a Japanese.”
Roosevelt’s internment of the Japanese was the worst blight on his presidency, and eventually necessitated a formal apology from our government to those citizens whose lives it ruined.
We have a long and painful history of ignoring the words of Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell doesn’t think it’s terrorists that pose the greatest threat to this country. Recently, Powell said: “People will say it's terrorism, but are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what’s the great threat we’re facing?”
Powell went on to says that he would approach the problem of terrorism differently. He says that this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a terrorist threat, but that we are “taking too much counsel of our fears,” adding we shouldn’t destroy ourselves and use fear for political purposes.
Historically, our government has been more dangerous to our liberty, than the enemy it claims to protect us from.
President John Adams insisted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were necessary, and our ancestors watch him use those acts to jail newspaper editors, for things they wrote about America.
President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the Espionage Act was necessary, and our ancestors watch him use that Act to prosecute 2,000 Americans most of whom were guilty only of advocating peace in a time of war.
FDR insisted that Executive Order 9066 was necessary to save American lives. He use that order to imprison and pauperize 110,000 Americans while General DeWitt, told Congress: “It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen. He’s still a Japanese.”
Roosevelt’s internment of the Japanese was the worst blight on his presidency, and eventually necessitated a formal apology from our government to those citizens whose lives it ruined.
We have a long and painful history of ignoring the words of Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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