This is a debate worth having because it is central to our way of life, rights, and freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. The Bill Of Rights is not on the table. The United States is different from Nazi Germany or the old Soviet Union. We are different from England before the Magna Carta. We have a Bill of Rights that has seen us through a Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and two world wars. We have faced espio­nage

during the Cold War and since then a series of bombings by home-grown terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph (the Atlanta Olympics bomber), and all of the clinic bombings and shootings of doctors by other forms of terrorists. United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who presided over the Nuremberg Trials in Germany after World War II, said: “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to estab­lish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”

What Jackson’s statement means is that the Bill of Rights cannot be voted in or out of power; it cannot be used to make political points or to be applied on a case-by-case basis. The Bill of rights is there to protect us. “Us” is all human beings. Once a group in power can deny rights to other groups — the slippery slope is in play. Your group may be next. We all want to stop terrorism. The debate should be about how we stop it. Make no mistake about it: terrorism never ends; to treat terrorism like a war is to employ incomplete thinking. “The war on terror” is a convenient shorthand phrase to make a point, at best. The worst-case scenario for classifying terror­ism as a war is that our own constitution is in jeopardy of being dismantled out of fear. We have had the fear massages on full since September 11, 2001. Even if the fear is real, we do not have to give up the right of Habeas Corpus; to say that we need to in some cases or else the sky will fall — is a false choice. Remember Richard Reid, the shoe bomber? On December 22, 2001 passengers on Flight 63 smelled smoke, much like the passengers on the aircraft December 25, 2009 when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed in the same manner as Reid. To­day, the shoe bomber is in a maximum security prison with no hope of parole. McVeigh has been executed. We expect that the courts will take care of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in a similar manner. We have a system that works. Our system is not bro­ken; let’s not be too quick to throw away our rights. Don’t let political demagogues scare you into giving up our precious Bill of Rights. How many United States service people gave up their lives in the world wars thinking that their ultimate sacrifice would ensure our freedoms? Our freedoms cannot be taken away by terrorists unless we want them to win. Do not let sloppy thinking and populist slogans seduce you into giving up the best safeguard in the world … our Bill Of Rights.