Freedom is worth the risks (Pitts)

[struggle4progress]

By LEONARD PITTS JR.
[e-mail]

`No one can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.'' -- Edward R. Murrow

Let's talk about the next terrorist attack.

We cannot know what form it will take, where it will occur or what the casualty count will be. But one thing we do know: We know we'll be told it happened because President Obama dismantled the policies of his predecessor ...

... from the 1910 bombing of The Los Angeles Times to the 1920 bombing of Wall Street to the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham to the 1975 bombing of La Guardia Airport to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center to the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City to the 1996 bombing of the Olympic Games in Atlanta to that bright, brittle morning in September of 2001 when 3,000 people died, terror has never been a stranger to these shores ...

No one denies a need to take every reasonable precaution for security. But we need to get over the idea we can guarantee we are never hit again. You simply cannot make that promise and have left a country worth living in. Or as President Eisenhower reputedly said, ``If you want total security, go to prison'' ...

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1066953.html

[Chemisse]

1. This is a point that is not mentioned enough.

We chose freedom over security every day whenever we leave the safety of our homes.

Al Queda must have been laughing at us all through the Bush years, a nation kept huddled in fear, clutching our collective security blanket.