Safe Liberty

On 9/11 I left work after the second tower fell. I drove out to Northborough to the kindergarten where my son was, picked him up and took him home.

The next day I went back to work. Not much work was done, of course, but there was much conversation. One statement from my friend Steve went something like this: "If I have to give up my rights for the security of me and my family, so be it."

Steve was-- is, actually, just six years later-- a young man. He had a good job, a wonderful wife and a new baby in the house. I didn't fault him then and I don't fault him now for what he said. When I heard him I realized I was hearing the same conflict that has riven America since it was founded.

From the Declaration of Independence: "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."

Note the order here: Life, the security Steven was talking about, Liberty, our freedoms, and the distant third, the pursuit of happiness.

At the time, Jefferson was thinking about being jailed, tortured and hanged by the British so he was concerned about the oppression from another nation-state. But he wasn't thinking this was a safe bet. Liberty isn't something you can pursue so safely. Liberty is dangerous.

Recently, a murder plot was uncovered to kill Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists of the Mohammad cartoons that were so well received by the Muslim world a while back. The Danish newspapers responded to the arrests of the conspirators by reprinting the cartoons. Exercising liberty is dangerous.

Liberty, like forgiveness, isn't something intended for convenience. It doesn't just apply to the guys I like with the opinions I support. To support freedom doesn't mean succumbing to terrorism. But if it has value it will have cost. The wages of a free society means we take it on the chin sometimes. This is not good or to be welcomed. It is merely inevitable.

"Conservatism" should mean to conserve our principles. It's should not be a code word for security via tyranny, liberty for the wealthy and powerful and preservation of only those ideals with which we agree.

When 9/11 happened, George Bush said we should continue to live as Americans otherwise the terrorists would win. I agree. But I don't think living as Americans consists of making sure we keep shopping.

We will get hit again. By creating the training ground that is Iraq, Bush has made that a certainty. That the only solution he's been able to provide involves the cost of our liberty shows the paucity of his imagination and the imagination of his supporters. But even if we didn't have Iraq, Timothy McVeigh showed that it could happen here.

I'm not surprised. After all, that's what "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor" is all about.



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Links of Interest
Toothpick Art
Compressed Air Car: Here, Here, Here.
Science Debate 2008
Why journalism fails.
Evolution vs Economics
Creation vs Evolution
PBS: The Question of God
Darwin Overview
Dinos Done In By Disease
Trunks Terminated By TB
Heat Harms Hadrosaurs
Lummoxes Lethalized by Lots of Lethalizers
Preposterous Posts by Popkes... Naah.