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Subject: Hm

Author:
JeffF

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Date Posted: 09:42:19 06/30/02 Sun
In reply to: JeffF 's message, "The Pledge decision" on 08:09:05 06/28/02 Fri

I too have concerns that we've traded liberty for supposed security and that the balance has started to tilt too far, but the country has survived far worse periods of threats to liberty in exchange for the promise of security and it will survive this one too.

You sometimes know history, so you may be aware that there was a big red scare in the twenties where foreigners were often persecuted, particularly if they had Russian sounding names. People with political beliefs outside of the major parties were often arrested on flimsy charges and there were a lot of investigations based on not much. At the same time, people from China and Ireland weren't allowed in many areas to apply for jobs. We survived and got past all of this.

We survived the second Red Scare too. The days of McCarthy(and Jenner, who started McCarthyism in the House before McCarthy started it in the Senate). Survived all the FBI investigations then and the terrible perscutions of people by J. Edgar Hoover. Who defends Mccarthyism now?

We survived the shameful internment of the Japanese Americans in WWII, often people who had been here for years and were patriotic citizens. I don't like the detention of suspected terrorists from overseas now, without charges, but we've still come a long way, Mark. You don't see Americans of Afghan descent being rounded up and thrown into camps. The press is much more vigilant now for one thing.

Got past the time when blacks couldn't vote in the South. Citizens without rights.

We've survived a lot of threats to liberty. It's always hard to find the right balance between liberty and security and it's important that people stay awake and don't give up too much liberty indifferently or voluntarily. The other problem with your comparison to the Vietnam era is that fortunately, we haven't reinstated the draft now, which even with other issues thrown in was the main issue in the sixties.

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