Today is the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that changed America. In speeches, articles, and on TV, people remark about how America has triumphed because it is just as united as it was before, just as strong, just as safe. But in all the discussion of the anniversary of 9/11, I have heard hardly anyone mention freedom or liberty.
Is America as free as it was before September 11, 2001? Sadly, no. Far before 9/11, the federal government passed various laws that violate people’s rights, but in the past ten years, many people have used the horrific terrorist attacks as an excuse to rob Americans of even more freedoms.
In November 2001 the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration were created. Just a month later, when Richard Reid attempted to blow up an airplane with bombs in his shoes, the government reacted by punishing everyone, requiring us to remove our shoes in order to board a plane. Then in March 2005 they banned lighters from planes. In April 2006, when a plot was discovered involving liquid bombs, the government again punished everyone by banning liquids. In December 2009, after a would-be terrorist hid a bomb in his underwear, this punishment of everyone was taken to new levels, as the government accelerated, and still continues to accelerate, the deployment of scanners that reveal people’s naked bodies beneath their clothes.
Efforts to track and monitor more and more aspects of people’s lives extend beyond airports. Due in part to the Patriot Act, passed the month after the attacks, the federal government analyzes bank records (and is trying to expand this tracking to prepaid cards), phone calls, computer activity, and more in what the ACLU’s Carol Rose sums up as a “vast, secret domestic spying infrastructure aimed at ordinary Americans.” Security cameras are everywhere, giving law enforcement a permanent record of people’s movements on streets, in stores, and on public transportation. People can be singled out for additional surveillance for activities as benign as taking photos, taking notes in public, or having unusual viewpoints. It is becoming impossible to buy anything, use a computer, or even leave your house without your actions being monitored and logged.
Plus, those people unlucky enough to be declared “enemy combatants” can be imprisoned indefinitely and even tortured without being charged with any crime.
To destroy individual rights and freedom is to destroy America, which is giving the terrorists victory. As James Alan Fox writes, ”By curtailing our freedoms and inconveniencing ourselves any more than is necessary, we play right into the hands of our enemies.” And Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights accurately wrote that the loss of our liberties ”destroyed many more lives than those lost in the attack.”
There are some reasons for hope, however. The TSA is deploying scanners that do not show people naked, planning eventually to let people keep their shoes on, and generally moving towards a strategy of assessing each person’s security risk instead of trying to make terrorist attacks physically impossible. We have managed to prevent, so far, the implementation of a National ID card, as well as, for the most part, increased gun control. And in general I have noticed a growing number of everyday people, politicians, commentators, and organizations that support liberty.
These changes are a step in the right direction, but we can not let them be the only steps. Americans must resist at all costs the gradual erosion of our liberties. We must not let the events of September 11, 2001, permanently change the ideals of freedom that America was founded upon. Let’s remember the 2,996 people who lost their lives 10 years ago, and also remember liberty.
For a fantastic speech by Congressman Ron Paul on this topic, check out my post from a year ago.
