On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 12:46:43 +0000, Mike Hide wrote:

Charlie I am afraid you are living in the past with rose tinted glasses,
it will never be the same as it was before 9-11....mjh

Some folks have decided to capitulate to the terrorists, but I'm unwilling
to give up so easily. As far as I'm concerned they aren't going to
destroy 200 years of freedom and progress with a couple of jumbo jets.
We need to maintain our commitment to the principles that made this
country great, EVEN if it allows the terrorists to hurt us again.
Freedom, we need to remember, isn't free. It has always had a cost. I
hate to think that we Americans have become too cowardly to pay the bill.
My father fought in the Philippines to preserve our liberty; so I think
I can put up with an infinitesimal extra risk. Besides that, there is
no guarantee that voluntarily giving up our freedoms will make us safer.
Even in Red China, where your only right is absolute obedience to the
State, they are currently suffering terrorist attacks. So even if we
become a totalitarian regime, we won't necessarily be any safer. Giving
up freedom for safety? It's a sucker deal.


Putting political opponents in "free speech zones" far away from
campaigning politicians is deeply un-American. Our founding documents
accord us the right to have our grievances addressed publicly. And if the
true value of freedom is too abstract a concept, consider that there are
practical issues as well. When President Bush was asked by Larry King
about the divisive nature of the 2004 campaign, Bush denied that the
country was divided, saying that everywhere he went, all he saw were
people cheering and waving. Now I don't know if he really feels this way,
but it's possible, since the President has admitted that he doesn't read
much and he isn't very interested in the news. If he'd been exposed to
the strong feelings of those who oppose his policies, he might be making
some sort of effort to address their concerns. He would have been a
better President if he could have done a better job of uniting the
American people in these dangerous times. And if he had, he'd probably be
re-elected easily. Instead, he's had to resort to morally odious tactics
like the Swift Boat Veterans.