As I watch the images of the two World Trade Center towers collapse, I cannot help but think that something has been destroyed that can never be rebuilt. No matter how much money is spent, no matter how extensive or prolonged the “war on terrorism” may be, no matter if we kill Osama bin Laden or not, something has been taken from us that we can never recapture. Part of our freedom is gone, never to return. The terrorists succeeded. All that is left for us to do is try for a way of life that maintains our safety while preserving our liberty and our freedoms. But we must be careful how this is done.
The terrorists exploited the very thing that makes our country great, our freedom, as a means to commit against us extensive destruction and mass murder. They used our system and our openness to shed our blood.
Now the question is how to prevent such a catastrophic event from happening again. What can be done to make sure something like this is never recurs?
Though measures can be taken, the costs of increased safety has the potential to undermine our liberty.
Millions of people across America are flying their flags, showing their patriotism and their solidarity against terrorism. I even felt a sense of connection with this country to a depth I have heretofore never experienced.
And what is the essence of this patriotism, this unsolicited love of country we feel, this allegiance to the flag?
It is our freedom!
Unfortunately I feel that the events of Sept. 11th are a watershed moment in the history of our country. It seems to me that two aspects of our lives may be pitted against one another. What is at issue here is the balance between our safety and our freedom.
If, after two or three years of a search and destroy mission against terrorism we finally declare an end to the war, what will our country be like?
All of us want to do whatever is possible to prevent those who hate us from living among us while plotting our deaths. But what will this entail?
Obviously, air travel will never be the same — and for good reason. It will take a large scale effort by our government to prevent hijacking from occurring. This means dramatically increased security at all airports and on all flights.
As the airline industry has declined from travelers’ fears, the train and bus industries have quadrupled in some areas. If this continues, there will need be increased presence of police or marshals, due to the large number of people, and, thus, the correspondingly increased threat of attack by terrorists.
Sports stadiums will also be potential targets. Some complexes can hold 100,000+ people, and therefore are at high risk to being bombed. Again, more security.
Cities where millions of Americans are, on any given day, concentrated in a small area, have a very high risk of being targets. What measures are going to be taken by our government to keep these areas safe? Checkpoints? I.D. verifications? Searches?
And the government, by the very nature of these attacks, by the fact that there is a great possibility that there are terrorists living in this country at this moment, trained and waiting, will increase its monitoring of the citizenry in order to stave off as much as possible another catastrophic event on U.S. soil. Who doesn’t want the government to get as much as a jump as possible on terrorists, on those who seek to murder us and make us suffer?
But we must be extremely careful and pay constant attention that methods enacted by Washington are not taken too far; that the presence of the government in our lives not become too great.
We are dealing with the tenuous relationship between our safety and our freedom. And unfortunately these important aspects of our lives may here be mutually exclusive. In order to have more security our freedom and our privacy can not but be effected.
So, the questions are begged: At what point does the price of our safety become too high? When do we risk vulnerability so that we still may be free?
I here proffer no solution that will guard us against terrorism, while at the same time maintaining the freedom and openness we as a country enjoyed prior to Sept. 11th. I only recognize the importance of our constant attention that new methods taken to keep us safe are never employed to keep us in line.
As some of us go to become soldiers of our country, we must all be soldiers of our freedom. For freedom is not just the essence of our patriotism, but it is the meaning of our lives.
Bob Paschen III is a senior in English. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
