Security vs. Liberty
By Danny Graves
Security versus liberty. The tension of these two concepts has been
vexing this country since our founding fathers wrote the Articles
of Confederation, later the United States Constitution, even later
the Bill of Rights.
Absolute liberty would be an anarchy - everyone does his own thing,
unrestrained.Our forefathers recognized that civilization required
a tradeoff, some personal liberty for some security. Benjamin Franklin
expressed it (perhaps not verbatim) thusly: "A person who readily
trades liberty for security deserves neither!"
History teaches us that our forefathers were more concerned about
a strong, central government than any foreign nation or entity.
This led to the Bill of Rights. Many Americans are under the misconception
that we have our Bill of Rights to thank for our basic liberties,
Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, etc.
Our forefathers recognized these rights are derived from our Creator.
These same rights are also recognized as natural rights. We had
these rights before our government was ever created! The Bill of
Rights might be more accurately described as a Bill of Restrictions,
for it places restrictions upon government, initially the federal
government only, later expanded to state governments.
Incidents such as the awful tragedy of September 11, 2001 or the
Murray building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, represent dangerous
times. Americans who are frightened are more likely to allow their
freedoms to be eroded. That is one reason our forefathers made it
difficult to amend the United States Constitution.
Security and liberty are conflicting concepts which have vexed us
for over two hundred years. Be aware that politicians, always riding
the wave of popular sentiments, are more prone to allow the erosion
of liberty in the name of security. One need look no further than
the creation of Carnivore (addressed in an earlier newsletter of
M-Ark) to see the possibilities of abuse by a strong central government.
What we, as an American people must do, is remain as vigilant to
encroachment by our own government as we are to terrorist attacks.