Today marks the launch of a group which makes me want to shake Bob Barr’s hand, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances. They’re pushing Congress to make a close re-examination of the Patriot Act, many aspects of which expire, or “sunset” as they call it, at the end of the year. For those that don’t already know, I am, for want of a better term, a staunch constitutionalist and consider the Patriot Act one of the greatest dangers facing America today. I also know that it’s not a black cloud floating alone in an otherwise blue sky. There’s a whole dark storm on the horizon and most people are too busy watching the grass grow to turn around and see it.
Well Bob Barr, along with a host of others (including the ACLU, so you liberals don’t go running off just yet), does see what’s coming. He describes the danger on the horizon well, so I’ll just quote him:
We believe the sunsets debate must be the first sentence in a broader conversation about the health of basic checks and balances in our constitutional order. This conversation must include discussion of the growth of domestic surveillance and the simultaneous erosion of judicial review. We need to talk about American dissent, and the threats it faces. We need to look anew at how the government is increasingly treating every American as a potential suspect. We need to address the creeping militarization of our civilian law enforcement.
Security should never supersede freedom. I’d rather be killed by a terrorist while speaking my mind than live to be 105 and have to present an ID everywhere I go. It’s good to see that some people close to the halls of power agree at least in part and are willing to take action.
Politics will be a big part of what I have to talk about here. Not in a “left vs. right”, “we’re right, they’re wrong” sort of way. Partly because that would make me part of the problem and partly because I think both sides need a good swift roundhouse to the head. Nobody has all the answers and anybody that tells you they do is really saying they want you to shove anchovies up their nostrils. Well, anybody excluding me that is.
I leave you (for now) with a quote from a man who summed it all up so well so long ago:
“Give me liberty or give me death.”