Give me liberty or…no, give me security

And to alleviate my fear, you can’t have liberty either

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. - Harry S. Truman

Most Americans are familiar with Patrick Henry’s bold proclamation of “give me liberty or give me death!” This is not true of President Harry Truman’s statement that “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” It is clear that, not only are people ignorant of Truman’s statement, but they do not share his belief and have departed from those tenets that built this once great country.

Look around now and you will see people living lives of fear - fear of “terrorism,” fear of viral infection, fear of “active shooters,” fear of being labeled or canceled (as a “homophobe”, “transphobe”, “racist”, “science-denier”). Name your boogey man (there are many more), for most American’s, he’s out there and he’s more dangerous than ever - even an “existential threat” to the country, or the world. As a result, people beseech the government to provide ever more protection; and with each incremental step toward additional “protection,” we also take an incremental step toward less liberty.

Two planes hitting the twin towers in 2001 is an event Americans born before 1996 will never forget. Images of the aircraft colliding with the buildings and the collapse of those sky-scraping structures. As a result, among other things, the TSA (an unelected bureaucratic agency) deemed increased security for people boarding planes was necessary, and the people have since been submitted to a litany of new screening measures and restrictions before boarding their flights. No longer are flyers free to bring into the fuselage beverages of their own, or any flask of fluid in quantities greater than 4 ounces. Shoes and belts must be removed before passing through invasive x-ray machines, and those unwilling to expose themselves - both figuratively in their personage, and literally to radiation - are peremptorily patted down. For the illusion of safety, Americans submit themselves to unreasonable search and seizure, counter to their rights protected under the Fourth Amendment.

More malign than TSA trespasses, another result of that fateful day was Congress passing the Patriot Act. This act gave government unprecedented usurpation of power not provided by the Constitution and the philosophy of the founders. Wiretaps, electronic encroachment, breaches of banking information, malicious monitoring of all sorts that, again, violate the Fourth Amendment at the very least. The people barely blinked as the government garnered additional authority. But where in the Constitution is it stated that the government is responsible for safe travels? Do you think the government inspected stage coaches and covered wagons, or those who entered therein, prior to them departing on their journeys?

In 2020, a virus crossed the globe and landed on our shores. Medical “authorities” (that word belongs in quotes) and media talking heads set about fear-mongering regarding the virus based on poor prognostication. They were so successful in their endeavor that they convinced people to don dubious diapers on their faces and inject themselves with a spike-inducing contrived cocktail the effects of which no one could predict. Further, many were cowed into closing businesses or staying home, as they shuddered at the thought they could be iced by an invisible adversary. Of course, large corporations faced no such stipulations, but others whose businesses were (arbitrarily) determined to be “non-essential” were forced to comply. 

The terrorization of the public was so overwhelming that, not only did the vast majority quietly acquiesce, but many went on the offensive against those who wouldn’t. Slurs like “grandma-killer” became commonplace, as well as “science-denier” and the term “misinformation.” People clamored for government to protect them from the viral menace and the contrarian crowd. They crowed for their and others’ liberties to be curtailed all in the name of a “medical emergency.” They railed for those who disagreed with the “authorities” to have their voices silenced, in opposition to the First Amendment. But where in the Constitution do we find this to be the government’s job or within the government’s authority? When did the government become responsible for protecting its citizens from illness?

Every time a public shooting takes place, there are calls for the government to “do something.” Some of those calls come from the people, others from the government itself. What the government should do, and what the people should be calling for, is proper prosecution of the perpetrator(s). Instead, the people (and government) try to prevent everyone from owning guns. They call for an end to the people owning “weapons of war,” when it was “weapons of war” that our founders bore in freeing this country from British rule. An abundance of activist organizations spend their time and money seeking to halt to the proliferation of firearms in America. They lobby government to violate the people’s right to keep and bear arms. But where in the Constitution is government given permission to infringe the people’s unalienable rights? How is it that the ever-so-clearly written Second Amendment protecting the right to keep and bear arms always the target of activist ire?

How is it Americans amicably abandon their rights in favor of perceived “protection?” Fear. For fear of life, fear of health, fear of being perceived unfavorably, Americans are willing to sacrifice their liberty. I will not quote Ben Franklin here, but instead go back to a larger quote of Patrick Henry from his speech to the second Virginia Convention:

Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/patrick.asp

Henry was making a salient point - liberty was far more important than safety or security, real or perceived. In this statement, he also captured a sentiment shared amongst America’s founding fathers. Liberty and the protection of individual rights was so important to those gathered, that only two days hence, a resolution was drafted to establish a militia which would be prepared for armed conflict with British forces. Yes, these men believed so strongly in defending individual liberty, inalienable rights, and private property that they pledged to one another their “Lives,” their “Fortunes,” and their “sacred Honor” in declaring their independence from Britain. To these men, death was better than living under tyranny of any sort.

How has America sunk so far as to see safety under dictators as preferable to liberty, so much so that they not only gladly relinquish their own rights but ardently argue that others relinquish theirs? Has America grown so soft? Have the tenets of socialism so infiltrated the freest country on Earth? Americans need to get back to their roots, reclaim the rugged independence and determination that made this land the home most sought-after by foreigners. We must eschew fear and take up the banner of liberty under which our founding fathers fought; else despiteful despots shall enslave us, and we will have only ourselves to blame.