Posted on 09/04/2002 2:21:46 PM PDT by Captain Shady
Freedom devalued Poll shows that many Americans no longer cherish their rights
Congress resumed its discussions in Washington this week on a host of important issues: homeland security, whether the United States should invade Iraq, budget priorities, health care and boosting the economy.
But none of those issues and no foreign enemy poses a greater danger to this country and the way of life we have enjoyed than the attitudes expressed in a poll released last week.
The poll shows that half of Americans think that the First Amendment goes too far in guaranteeing the rights it protects.
That number has more than doubled in the past two years. Researchers have tied the change to security concerns surrounding the war on terrorism and the way the media covered the 2000 presidential election.
The annual poll is done by the Center for Survey Research & Analysis at the University of Connecticut for the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
Researchers found that:
“More than four in 10 said they would limit the academic freedom of professors and bar criticism of government military policy.”
“About half of those surveyed said government should be able to monitor religious groups in the interest of national security, even if that means infringing upon religious freedom.”
“Forty-two percent of respondents said the press in America has too much freedom to do what it wants.”
Are Americans willing to trade freedom for security, even the most cherished freedoms of the First Amendment?
They will be if they see these freedoms as applying only to others. And they will if they think the restrictions they favor will only apply to others.
We must remember that the First Amendment, indeed the entire Bill of Rights, protects our freedoms — yours personally.
There is no way to impinge on someone else’s religious freedom without giving up your own. There is no way to limit someone else’s ability to speak his mind without giving up your ability to sound off. There is no way to restrict the news media without giving up your right to know what’s happening.
The First Amendment and other constitutional protections are not just for others. They protect us. Their provisions and our forefathers’ willingness to fight for their preservation have made this country the beacon for freedom that it is.
We cannot now allow complacency and fear to convince us to part with those cherished values that are hated by much of the world and envied by the rest.
Americans are planning to commemorate Sept. 11. We should take the advice of Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center and make Sept. 11 an annual “Day of Freedom,” a celebration of the uniquely American values that the terrorists attacked.
Haynes reminds us of Abraham Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg: “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
What better way to commemorate an attack on freedom than by committing to preserve and celebrate that freedom.
Looks like they spent more money on the organization name than an accurate poll.
"Our reliance against tyranny is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."
– Abraham Lincoln, speech during campaign against Stephen A. Douglas
for seat in U.S. Senate, September 1858
And they should. Quite a high percentage of mosques double as terrorist fund raising centers.
I know libertarians, Bill, and you're no libertarian.
If you're going to take a poke at me.. be man enough to address it to me.
Regards.
"I tell you true, liberty is the best of all things;
never live beneath the noose of a servile halter."
--William Wallace
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