In the three years since the September 11 attacks, national "homeland" security has taken on a new importance in our government. Private airline screeners have been replaced with government employees, federal marshals patrol our planes, and laws such as the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act purport to shut down the operation of terrorist groups inside America.
Our military was involved in two campaigns aimed (partially, at least) at making the United States of America a safer nation. But security has its price, and this is often paid for with our civil liberties.
The USA PATRIOT Act, or "Patriot Act" for short, was the first blow. Passed in the name of securing America against future attacks, the Act drastically altered the privacy and liberty of American citizens. Much has been written about the Patriot Act, and its negative effect on civil liberties.
Today, more legislation is under consideration that would further erode Americans' civil liberties. Congress is considering a law that would require a national identification card and "screening points" inside the country.
A national identification card was one of the recommendations put out by the 9/11 Commission as a way to prevent future attacks. Congressman Ron Paul (R, TX) warns that Congress is trying "to be seen doing something" as a result of the report.
Critics of the plan compare the idea to similar policies in the former Soviet Union, where citizens were frequently stopped and their identification demanded of them, no matter what they were doing. Such a comparison, while evoking feelings of resentment, as the USSR was viewed as 'evil' in all respects, is not without merit.
Already, people traveling by plane, and in some cities, by train, are being required by authorities to present identification. Nearly all of these people are innocent, and those may turn out not to be are still entitled to that presumption.
And what if you forget your ID card? At the very least, you would be prevented from traveling any further, and it is quite possible that you would be arrested. After all, if the police will not let you continue forward, why should they let you go back to your home?
A national ID card would have very little effect on our actual security, just as the Patriot Act has had little effect. There has yet to be any direct evidence that any provisions of the act have helped to foil another attack. What is clear is that the law now requires disclosure of otherwise private information—such as library records and secret wiretaps—without any oversight, and while 'gagging' the organization supplying the information.
The War on Terror is framed by our government as a protection of our freedom and our liberty. But the biggest threat to these comes not from a terrorist group, but from the very government claiming to be protecting us.
There is, practically speaking, a trade-off between security and liberty, despite what Ben Franklin once said. There needs to be compromise somewhere in the middle, however; societies of total liberty or of total security are equally problematic.
Do not stand by and let this "home of the free" turn into a land of total government control.