As our nation’s civil liberties continue sadly to erode, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the only senator to vote against the unfortunately named U.S.A. Patriot Act, is certainly a profile in courage. In a statement released on his website, Feingold says, in part:
Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.
Well unfortunately, that seems to be what America is becoming in the wake of September 11. Thank god there are still some dissenting voices like Feingold–people who realize that dissent, not mindless unity, is what enables democracy to work.