Fortress America?
North Texas Daily, 9/13/01

In a disaster situation, such as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, it is a temptation for our leaders to restrict the rights of the people.

Temporary measures such as blocking traffic, grounding flights and closing off the borders and seaports were necessary to prevent another attack.

Sooner than information could reach the news desks Tuesday morning, television news reporters threw around rumors of martial law and nationwide highway roadblocks. I heard several commentators cry, “Will this become Fortress America?”

That is a valid question. Is our country at risk of loosing many of the rights it once enjoyed in the name of public safety?

America will never be the same country again. The peace and safety many take forgranted is challenged by ruthless terrorists who do not share a respect for our ways of life (or lives, period). As my instructors echoed each other early on that fateful morning, “Your lives have changed forever.”

Our right to travel was temporarily infringed. For the first time, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide. It must have been a temptation to ground the flights for a longer period of time, but thankfully our lawmakers were quick to assure us the nation’s air traffic would be restored.

But how will our other rights, namely Constitutional ones, be at future risk?

What about our freedom of religion? In the name of public safety, would Shi’a Islam and other fundamentalist religions be practically (though not officially) forbidden in the U.S.? A small minority of religions teach the only way to heaven is to die in combat against a non-believer. This doctrine is a dangerous one, and is spreading. But if we restrict one religion, others run the risk of being regulated as well.

And what about our Second Amendment right to bear arms? The right to carry and use firearms came under more fire shortly after the Columbine High School massacre. With the threat of domestic terrorism fresh in the minds of the public, measures may be placed to further limit the right of common citizens to defend themselves in a competitively aggressive world.

Our freedom of press, our freedom of assembly, our freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and even our freedom of speech could be easily disposed of in an attempt to protect the populous.

I believe our constitutional rights serve our best interests, even in a time such as this. The men who wrote it were geniuses, and they took care to place safeguards against both foreign invasion and internal insurrection.

A government more faithful to the vision of our Founding Fathers would serve us well. For example, George Washington warned us to steer clear of entanglement in foreign affairs. As foreign terrorist threats begin to increase, we would be wise to “mind our own business” and intervene only when strictly necessary.

The Second Amendment could prevent further hijacking. As radical as this may seem, I believe if citizens were allowed to carry small weapons with them on commercial airplanes, hijack attempts would be almost unheard of. Perhaps the violent scenes of Tuesday would have been avoided if one brave American had a small, registered handgun in which to deter the knife-wielding terrorists.

Our Constitution gave us the framework for country free of foreign invasion for more than 200 years. I would urge my fellow students to consider the benefits of a smaller, less intrusive government.

Don’t forget to send your congressmen and other officials a letter of encouragement for doing their best to preserve the careful balance between order and chaos in this time of terror.

Andy Hogue may be reached at creton4 [at] yahoo.com