The Price of Security
Sep. 17th, 2006 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99I recently watched Ted Koppel's The Price of Security documentary on Discovery. It was very informative. He started with the topic I was most interested -- the changes in security at the airports. But that was the smallest piece of what he covered. And really, all he said about it is that we have adjusted. No hints on changes or flexibility or hope for my traveling future.
That wasn't the part of his show that caught my attention. Really, the whole thing gave me a bigger picture in what has happened. Parts were comforting -- we are no longer torturing. Guantanamo Bay looks much better than it used to. But in the week since I saw the show, two things have been haunting me. They come out of his interview with Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice.
(1) She said that after September 11, many of the major decisions and pushes by the White House and our government came out of a strong and immediate fear that another attack was coming. She said that fear still haunts the White House today. She even indicated several of the decisions that fear sparked.
(2) She said that before September 11, our attitude as a government and a nation was that a person in custody was innocent until proven guilty. We would rather let a few guilty people go free than imprison or punish an innocent person. She said that Sept 11 and the fear of another, much worse attack has completely reversed that attitude. This is why the White House has spent so much energy avoiding allowing suspected terrorists in custody to be released into any form of our justice system. They fear that we cannot prove our suspicions beyond a shadow of a doubt. Therefore these people will go free, to potentially work toward another attack against us.
These two statements and attitudes scare the bejeezus out of me. I do not want a government ruled by fear. I want a government who allows our justice system to work. And if that means that people who intend us harm are free to walk the street... Then that is what many of the other information-gathering pushes our government is working on implementing is all about. I want to live in a country where I do not fear to make the slightest error, or I will be thrown in prison without recourse for the rest of my life. Don't say it won't happen to me. I want to live in a country that I can be proud of the government and justice system, even if we sometimes do things the hard way. I would rather live in a country that I can be proud of, and take the very small risk of being the victim of another attack.
I have been ashamed to be a US citizen as I travel overseas for some time now. If all I can do right now is vote in the next election... That is what I will do. Show me the candidates that are going to do what I believe is the difficult, right thing.
That wasn't the part of his show that caught my attention. Really, the whole thing gave me a bigger picture in what has happened. Parts were comforting -- we are no longer torturing. Guantanamo Bay looks much better than it used to. But in the week since I saw the show, two things have been haunting me. They come out of his interview with Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice.
(1) She said that after September 11, many of the major decisions and pushes by the White House and our government came out of a strong and immediate fear that another attack was coming. She said that fear still haunts the White House today. She even indicated several of the decisions that fear sparked.
(2) She said that before September 11, our attitude as a government and a nation was that a person in custody was innocent until proven guilty. We would rather let a few guilty people go free than imprison or punish an innocent person. She said that Sept 11 and the fear of another, much worse attack has completely reversed that attitude. This is why the White House has spent so much energy avoiding allowing suspected terrorists in custody to be released into any form of our justice system. They fear that we cannot prove our suspicions beyond a shadow of a doubt. Therefore these people will go free, to potentially work toward another attack against us.
These two statements and attitudes scare the bejeezus out of me. I do not want a government ruled by fear. I want a government who allows our justice system to work. And if that means that people who intend us harm are free to walk the street... Then that is what many of the other information-gathering pushes our government is working on implementing is all about. I want to live in a country where I do not fear to make the slightest error, or I will be thrown in prison without recourse for the rest of my life. Don't say it won't happen to me. I want to live in a country that I can be proud of the government and justice system, even if we sometimes do things the hard way. I would rather live in a country that I can be proud of, and take the very small risk of being the victim of another attack.
I have been ashamed to be a US citizen as I travel overseas for some time now. If all I can do right now is vote in the next election... That is what I will do. Show me the candidates that are going to do what I believe is the difficult, right thing.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 02:41 pm (UTC)I wish I could disagree with you, and tell you everything is going to be okay, but with the Bush Reich trying to get rid of Habeas Corpus (http://www.alternet.org/rights/41726/), I find this society very 1984-ish.
http://www.hermes-press.com/barbaric_annihilation.htm