Since the moment of the attack on September 11th 2001, our nation has been on a trajectory of outweighed default to security concerns at the cost of constitutional liberty. We moved from a paradigm of debate about security issues, to fearfully allowing a command and control "Patriot Act" that has taken debate out of our hands and placed it instead into the hands of military and security driven officials. I am glad that we are being protected by valorous officials, but at what cost to our liberty? We don't have the same zealous defenders on the liberty side of the fragile balance to fight for our freedoms. It is almost as if the security side of the equation has overwhelmed the liberty side and we are not prepared with a process to keep the balance in tune. I look at the militarization of our police forces and how they are less likely to serve and protect than to dictate and control. The callousness they are accepting in their behavior cannot be justified because of fear! Our American nation has many ongoing problems to overcome and they will not be overcome in the immediate future if we start to lose sight of our own values. It is as if we are becoming the enemy we have always stood and fought against. Tyranny in any form is not an acceptable solution even in a time of war. We learned that lesson in the past but it seems we are to learn it again. The root of our destruction won't come from the outside filtering in, it will come from us by not living up to the values our nation was founded upon. It starts with punishing greed and injustice. If we don't clean our own house of the rot that will not stop it won't be some other nation(s) that attack us it will be we attacking ourselves that will kill off our great democratic experiment.
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