Tuesday, January 03, 2006

National Security, Secrecy, and Liberty

We would all do well to remember Benjamin Franklin's perspective on this topic:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Indeed, a variation on this appears in the stairwell of the Statue of Liberty:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

We cannot allow unbridled power by the Executive Branch. Much of what made America great was the paranoia around absolute power and non-representation: Checks and Balances, separation of Church and State, States' Rights

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