Freedom and 9/11 Remembrances

Everytime I give my 15 year old daughter permission to participate in the band at games in the Alamodome, I worry about her safety, think about it, weight it, analyze it, and then give her my permission to live free and play her heart out. It's my way of saying to the terrorists, "Screw You".

I haven't flown a plane since 9/11, and won't again until all of the hassles and checks and confiscations of personal property are withdrawn. It is not the terrorists that prevent me from flying. Not flying is my way of saying to my government that insists on restricting the freedoms I enjoyed before 9/11, "Screw You" and your cowardly ways. I would rather be dead from a terrorist attack than to live my life in fear of my travelling companions and fellow Americans carrying nail clippers and shampoo bottles.

Think about it. If nail clippers and shampoo botlles should be feared on planes, should they not also be feared in crowded shopping malls, on trains, and buses, and New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square and in football and baseball stadiums?

Living free is inherently dangerous. Living free is inherently noble. Succumbing to fear and allowing it to dictate one's decisions and actions is to give power to the fear and those who promote it.

And for those Americans who wish to live free, giving power to our own government which seeks to make us afraid, is as inherently dangerous as giving power to terrorists. For they both seek to deprive us of our liberty.