Our liberties are being whittled away

Are we heading toward a police state by little increments? In the same week the news media obsessed on the Supreme Court’s deliberation on the Affordable Health Act (Obamacare), another decision, advocated by the Department of Justice, moved us closer to a police state. It is now conceivable that, if you are stopped for a traffic violation or other minor offense, you could be subject to a humiliating strip-search.

Many of us react negatively to the increasingly invasive search before getting on a plane “in the interests of national security.” On the wall in our house is a quotation from Benjamin Franklin: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Rachel Maddow recently wrote “Drift,” which details how our government no longer bothers to get popular or congressional approval to fight wars. She has also noted that, thanks to a dedicated effort of the conservatives, our political landscape has moved so far to the right that such Republicans as Nixon and Reagan would be uncomfortable in their own party.

Today, Osama bin Laden in death has achieved increasing proof that we are what we deny. We are increasingly imperialistic, militaristic, intolerant and undemocratic. Protesters may be arrested and strip-searched. Demonstrators are fenced in “free speech zones.” Fenced in free speech zones?

Franklin foresaw this over 200 years ago. When we value security over liberty, it is not too long before we have neither.

How secure do you feel when you are X-rayed, patted down, separated from your possessions and, now, fearful of a police strip search if you are stopped for going through a stop sign or going five miles over the speed limit?

Herb Best

Streamwood