Have You Forgotten

Have You Forgotten...A Fine Line

A clear blue September sky, not a cloud in sight to mar the natural beauty of the day. The bright morning sun was slowly rising above Manhattan, as the people began to awaken and go about their day. The honking of horns, of polished shoes and beat up converse on the pavement of New York City, and children heading off to school. A whirring sound was heard above, a plane going over the city. Something was wrong. It was too low; was heading straight towards a rising tower...one that had risen above the Manhattan skyline since completion in 1977.

The horror deepened as the plane continued it's fatal course. Suddenly a huge roar and the scream of metal scraping against metal as the airplane crashed with momentous force into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Six years, two months and seven days ago, twenty one men who felt that by instilling fear and attacked our country, they could bring down the United states of America, hijacked four planes and crashed three of them in to the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon. The fourth plane never made it to its destination due to the brave Americans on board Flight 93. Today, the leader of the terrorist group who planned the attack is in hiding, or else dead. Our country has gone to war twice, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war is continuing today. And people have forgotten that day. Forgotten the sacrifices made. Pretended that the horror never occurred. Yet, our entire lives are wrapped around security measures put into place because of this attack. Searches and seizures at airports, wiretapping, suspicion of ones neighbors, ones friends, of racial and ethnic groups. And then, the Act, the Act that has stirred up controversy like nothing else has since pre-Revolutionary War. The USA Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act was first passed roughly one month after September 11th, 2001, and over the last six years, it has been 'buffered up' at least once. Another buffering is expected soon. The basic summarization of the Act is to prevent the occurrence of other terrorist attacks much like September 11, and to do this, various actions are sanctioned. Government officials can listen in on telephone calls and read emails. A person can be arrested, sent to jail, and held there without knowing what they are being held for. 'Reasonable suspicion.' Anyone suspected of being a terrorist is quickly grabbed out of everyday life and separated from the civilian population. Does Guantanamo Bay ring a bell?

Now, after giving a rough outline of the situation, we come to 'my opinion.' . Is the Patriot Act right? Is it fair? Should it be allowed? Has the government gone too far? My answer to these questions is this. I believe certain freedoms should be controlled when a nation is at war. Yet, I also believe that people should not give up their freedoms to the government. The government cannot 'take away' ones privileges. The phone conversations and emails, I don't have a problem with. If you discuss 'warning' topics that you know could get you into trouble if you said them to a government official, or a security guard, then you're an idiot and you deserve to be censored, or monitored. International calls being monitored; I don't have a problem with that either. Yet, the one thing that I do have a problem with is holding someone without giving a specified reason as to why they are being held. I don't care who you are, or what you've done; everyone has the right to know why he or she is being held. And while you don't have to tell that person the specifics of who tipped off the authorities, you have to tell them why