Included in all the tweets and Facebook postings about the 13th anniversary of 9-11 yesterday was this from friend and co-worker Martin McKeay:
Never forget 9/11 and terrorism. But don’t forget how many rights have been taken from us in the name of fighting terrorism.
He’s got that right.
There’s been plenty of outrage in recent years over the U.S. government running wild, violating our privacy in the name of security. The Bush Administration was rightly criticized over warrantless wiretapping. More recently, the Obama Administration and such government agencies as the NSA and CIA have been roasted in the fire of public opinion, thanks to all the leaking Edward Snowden did. That too is a good thing.
But let’s be clear about something: In the final analysis, this is our own fault.
We started it.
The Patriot Act passed at the height of our hysteria over 9-11. At the time, a lot of us thought we were seeing terrorists holding vials of smallpox and suitcase nukes at every street corner. We were so freaked out over the next potential attack that we gave government the keys to do anything it wanted if they would just keep us safe.
We get stupid when fear drives us. I can testify to that because back then I was one of the fear-laden souls who wanted the government to do whatever it took to prevent more attacks.
Fear made me refuse to get on a plane to Arizona to attend a cousin’s wedding a couple weeks after 9-11. When I finally had to get on a plane to Chicago for work in 2004, I was terrified.
Under the spell of fear, anxiety and depression, I was afraid of my own shadow. I chose staying indoors over living. I had a mental illness that was undiagnosed and out of control. But you didn’t have to have a mental illness to be in a stupor during that period of American history.
I eventually found treatment and lost the fear and anxiety. Since then I’ve been in overdrive doing the things I was too scared to do back then.
Of course, one person overcoming his demons isn’t the same as a nation undoing a bad law passed in a moment of national fear.
Also, once you give any government emergency powers, it doesn’t like to give it back.
Given my own history, that’s probably one of the reasons I spoke out so loudly against SOPA and PIPA a couple years ago. I’m not willing to cower in the corner while Congress gives the government — and private industry, for that matter — even more power to violate our freedom.
Not again.
I’m glad we’ve come to our senses. But we owe it to ourselves and our children and grandchildren to take some responsibility for the problem.