Post-9/11 Sanity

I have been oblivious to the issue describes in the four essays for most of my life. I have grown up in the post-9/11 America of lack of privacy for the sake of national security. I never knew any more than that airports needed security that took two hours. I didn't wonder why airports had time-consuming security; I only wondered why I didn't see more security measures elsewhere. And I have only been profiled as someone who could not have possibly done anything wrong. When I showed up to detention, the instructor took one look at me and then laughed at how it must be my first time and that a trivial offense. I am not of the racial profile that is harassed, like the authors of these essays, and I am young, so I have not experienced anything different from the post-9/11 norm. While this makes me feel of inadequate status to address these issues, these essays gave me perspective into the ways government operations can affect human lives.

Yet now that I have seen the way security and profiling can change lives, and I have seen minority authors on both sides of the issue, I don't think I wish for any changes to security and profiling in my life.

Over the course of history, there have been many infractions on human rights, but several have been declared necessary. I feel they usually are. If there is direct statistical evidence that a certain group commits more crimes, it is wrong to ignore it. It is a loss of freedom for the protection of the majority. And maybe it is just not for safety, but for sanity. Once a fear is installed we cannot remove it. I have been instructed by those videos in health class, and they show every person to which an unfortunate event has occurred, from teen pregnancy to drunk driving accidents, saying "I never thought it could happen to me". At least to me, this has created the fear that if it can happen anywhere, it can happen to me. Once there is a disaster, the media spreads it across the globe, and I, and I think most all, want more protection. The new millenium has created a society of fear, and I am part of it.

But there are also those who ground themselves in freedom, not fear. Their main fear is the loss of that freedom, and so it upsets people most when they directly regard regulation as a restriction of freedom. Liberty and individualism, the great American ideals, are regulated. People are so accustomed to being told of their presence, that any infraction feels like a major crime. But I feel that we subscribe to the government operations if we wish to live with the benefits of a society based on freedom. And after all, the government is only trying to keep us safe and sane. We must relinquish a little freedom to savor it.