What Price Freedom?

Cenk Uygur at HuffPo:

Is this all it took for us to throw our values away? We get hit once, and we run from our principles like untested men who lack the courage of their convictions. We say we believe in rights, we believe in liberties, we believe in freedom. And the minute we’re struck, we’re ready to throw those away in the name of unattainable absolute security. Is the price of freedom so cheap?

Snake oil salesmen have been trying to sell people a false sense of security for time immemorial. Our founding fathers tried to warn us of men like these. They tried to protect us by writing inalienable rights into our founding document. Are we going to give up what they fought so hard for just because we’re scared now?

Brave men have defended that constitution for hundreds of years through many more wars far bloodier than this. And for all that sacrifice, we are ready to roll up those rights they died for at the first sign of trouble. Will we be remembered as the generation of cowards who gave up our freedom after the first volley?

It’s easy to succumb to an authority figure who promises more security. It’s hard to stand together against what might be more violence directed at all of us. It’s easy to give up your rights for what you think is a little more safety. It’s hard to fight for those rights in the face of bullies and enemies, foreign and domestic.

Their leader says his people don’t need liberties, they just need his divine guidance. Our leader says something similar. He says he will protect us by taking away some of our rights and that we should put our trust in him because he is led by God.

I say he is a charlatan and a coward.

Go read.

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