Basic freedoms not basic cable (Basic freedoms) 7.27.02

I like to read my old college paper online. The Iowa State Daily was OK to read and a great training ground for this line of work. Going back to school over the Web reminds me just how seriously every word we printed was taken - not just by staff and students, but by all kinds of extremists who enjoyed taking out their media frustrations on junior journalists. They could swear at us, but Dan Rather wouldn't put up with that nonsense. If you leave obscene remarks in Dan Rather's comment box, he will hunt you down and beat you senseless with his personal assistant's electronic rolodex. I know this, because Tyler Durden knows this.
A comment left on that vaunted Web site (www.iowastatedaily.com-check out my old stuff) last Thursday got me to thinking. A poster from Hong Kong wrote about Americans, our precious liberties and common American complaints: "[Al-Qaida] wants to kill every last one of you. You really may have to sacrifice some things - short term - to still be alive tomorrow. Think about all your bellyaching when you see that your entire government has been destroyed."
It is one thing to hear this kind of talk from Americans, but when our exact words - and I do think this is a fair, if overblown, sample of comments I've heard from the Justice Department, Ari Fleischer, Dick Cheney and some citizens - are spouted back at us, it takes on a different dimension.
You know, if I had a cause I could conceive of, I would do something constructive. If the War on Terror resembled World War II or any conventional war, I'd collect tires and tin, give up sugar and meat, volunteer my service ... anything. But it isn't. This whole thing is more confusing than a David Lynch movie only without all the dancing midgets and psychotic lesbians.
I can tell you this, though, before any of us start sacrificing the things that make America, well, America, in order to feel like we are safe or contributing to the cause, we better think long and hard about what it is we're giving up. IS surrendering civil liberties necessary? Is it temporary? Or is it just the start of something bigger?
What should we be willing to sacrifice?
I've said all along, I don't have a problem waiting in line at the airport to have some knuckle dragger go through my underwear looking for pipe bombs and fingernail files. That is totally cool with me. I don't have a problem with the FBI questioning suspects or following leads when they get the notion to actually do those things. I don't have a problem with the CIA searching the Internet for al-Qaida communications. We've known for years the net isn't exactly private.
Can we handle change? Sure, we can. Should we be vigilant? Absolutely. Should we be vigilantes? No.
Life changed after 9/11 and we all regretted that. Some adaptation will be necessary, sure, a greater level of awareness doesn't hurt. But let's not close up this great democratic experiment because of fear.
It's always the really good liberties we talk about giving up, too, like freedom of speech. My right to blab endlessly on a variety of subjects is just about my favorite civil liberty of all time and I take a dim view to shutting up.
When we start thinking secret tribunals, martial law and trying Americans as enemy combatants are OK because American values like justice shouldn't apply when the heat is on, I get nervous. Worse than that, I get offended. We all should because our liberties and values aren't luxuries or privileges; they are our rights.
Voluntarily giving up any of our rights isn't just putting the cart in front of the horse, it's dragging the horse behind the cart going 90 miles an hour down the Interstate, "Highway to Hell" blasting out the stereo.
If we let our fears dictate our actions, we lose control of this country. If we voluntarily give up our liberties, if we become a police state where postmen, cable guys and truckers spy on us with some vague notion that it's right to do so, while Homeland Security repackages fascism and John Ashcroft convinces middle America that dissent is terrorism and martial law is no more offensive to the American spirit than community policing, then our enemies win a much greater battle than killing us could ever achieve.
Our forefathers fought for our rights, they did not fight to create a government that does what it pleases because its citizens are too timid or apathetic to speak up.
We better talk while we can, because I hear the sound of jackboots coming up the back stairs.
Giving up a few basic freedoms is not the same thing as going without cable for a while. It's like going without oxygen for a few days. The absence of liberty is not acceptable, freedom is NOT temporary.
- Greg Jerrett is a Nonpareil staff writer. His column runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He may be contacted at 328-1811, Ext. 279, or by e-mail at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.