I just found this article, Security versus Civil Liberties, published last February. This is one area where I differ with the libertarians. I think that a lot of what we think of today as civil rights are, in fact, just privileges we've gotten used to, but which are not guaranteed by the Constitution, nor even compatible with it.

Examples include "the right to be anonymous" as one talk show host called it. The "right to privacy" is also illusory and mixed up. And the establishment clause and other First Amendment provisions have been twisted into anti-religion laws and distortions ranging from mere nuisances, like demonstrations, to excuses for defiance of law. Personal privileges have been allowed to trump civic responsibility, and we now find ourselves unable to take common sense measures to protect ourselves from suicidal murderers, even as we submit to intrusive and pointless searches at airports and relinquish nail clippers and tweezers, while the INS grants favored status to our enemies.

We have heard endless twaddle about rights, but next to none about the responsibilities of citizenship in this land. Yet, without the latter, the former are doomed. As we cede more and more responsibility to our government, we find ourselves in quandaries like that of the gay community, demanding a quick cure for AIDS while refusing to provide information critical to epidemiological measures to combat it. Everyone wants to be safe, but no one wants to be tested or questioned about their contacts. We want better schools, but without standards or homework. We want freedom for our own utterances, but want "hate speech" abolished. We want everybody to be guaranteed health and prosperity, but we don't like "Big Government"--note the latest farm bill. We think of ourselves as rugged and independent individualists, but demand that the government make sure we don't fail.

But stop for a moment and consider the word independent. It implies freedom, but its basic meaning is self-reliant, not depending on someone or something else for support, self governing. How many of us today can really claim true and complete independence?

We have lost our understanding of the social contract, and until we rediscover it, we will not be safe.