Freedoms vs Security

In the novel 1984 the people have no basic freedoms especially not privacy.   However these people know no differently because they think its how their country has always been governed.  In today's world it is a different story. We know our civil liberties and rights, and will protest if they are encroached on by anyone, even government.  I think that many Americans whether they will admit it or not, are willing to give up some freedoms or at least give the government some 'wiggle room' in order to be safe.

9/11 is a prime example of this statement.  The plane hijackers lived undetected in the US for months while they were taking language classes, flying lessons, studying crop dusters, and while their visas were about to expire.  After 9/11 Americans were terrified,outraged, and shocked that something like this could have happened, and how they could have blended in so easily and gone undetected. However with our open society it really was not hard. Also, a third of Americans in polls said that Arab Americans should be placed under special surveillance and half said that Arab Americans should be required to carry special identification cards. I think this is ridiculous that their are people willing to give up others rights but not their own.  The Americans who voted this way are generalizing that just because someone is Arab that they are a terrorist, which is wrong.  Arab Americans are citizens and deserve the same liberties under the constitution.  If rights are going to be limited it should apply to everyone.
 I think it is terrible that it took innocent lives to be lost to open our eyes and realize "wow, something needs to change".  I think the government should have better investigative power in order to keep situations like 9/11 from happening again.  Everyone seems to be scared of the government going to far and abusing its powers, but I think that should be the least of our worries.  The government has on numerous occasions restrained itself from encroaching on our civil liberties.  For example, after 9/11 two programs were proposed known in short as TIPS and TIA.  TIPS was basically a national snitching system, and TIA was a huge database of credit card receipts, travel records, and etc which would have been run by military.  Congress rejected both of these programs because it knew there were unconstitutional and it was just going way to far.

The saying goes, "You gotta give a little, to get a little", which is exactly what has to happen when discussing freedoms vs security.  Its a balancing act and it always will be.