The age of liberty-less Americans
by Bill Carey
It's a disturbing theory, coming at a time when we're supposed to be bonding together and praising our country and its culture so we can defeat terrorism. But I believe that Americans have less freedom today than at any time in our history. In fact, so much has been done to destroy liberty in this country during the last two decades that we should be asking ourselves how much freedom we actually have left to say, write, and do what we want.
I can give three examples that prove what I mean:
* The unreasonable searches to which Americans routinely submit. Today, Tennessee residents can't even walk into a state or federal office building without having their bags, purses, and pockets searched by a government employee. Anyone besides me sick of this? The amount of money we pay this army of unqualified security guards is a waste of tax dollars. Last year, for instance, the Legislature added over $500,000 to their own security budget in the middle of the budget crisis without even voting on the matter to increase the number of state troopers chit-chatting and reading the newspaper in the halls of Legislative Plaza.
Additionally, I don't believe that having a few underpaid people going through everyone's things at the front door will save lives. As 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing proved, terrorists usually don't walk through the front door, and a lot of weapons aren't even picked up by metal detectors.
Finally, as a reporter, I don't want people who work for the president or governor going through my things every time I get an inkling to go look up something. It's none of their damn business.
* If you want more proof that Americans have lost their love affair with liberty, look at the number of ridiculous rules they tolerate from their employers. Millions of Americans now work in offices where there are tedious, unnecessary, and, I would argue, unconstitutional regulations about appearance, orderliness, and personal behavior. A male friend of mine once worked for the insurance firm Willis Corroon; at that time, the company required all its executives to get up and shut their doors whenever they received personal calls at work, no matter how short the call. A female friend of mine who worked for Vanderbilt University was sent home and ordered to change clothes because women weren't allowed to wear pants in the office.
I'm sure that if I knew more about inter-office policies at every company in Knoxville, I could list many more ridiculous rules that employees tolerate. One, however, is the Knoxville News Sentinel, which forbids reporters from eating hot food at their desks and from having stacks of books on their desks.
* The third piece of evidence that Americans have lost touch with the very idea of liberty is the intimidation that many people tolerate from their employers concerning speaking freely to journalists. Of course, I realize that many people are afraid of reporters because they don't trust them; that's a different matter. But today, a disturbing number of Americans would lose their jobs for saying anything to a reporter, no matter how harmless.
Take Wal-Mart, for instance. A few years ago, I wrote a story about Wal-Mart Supercenters and their impact on the grocery store industry. I called a couple of Wal-Mart locations to talk to some store managers. It was then that I found out that Wal-Mart store managers are fired if they say anything to reporters; they can't even confirm the existence and the location of other stores. All calls to Wal-Mart have to go to corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. I called Bentonville and got one of their corporate spin-doctors on the phone. He was so incompetent that he couldn't even provide me a current list of Wal-Marts in the area. So much for being able to find out what is happening in the community.
In any case, I'm hoping that the many rights' violations that are now done in the name of security, control, and profit represent a phase that will soon reverse itself. This country is supposed to be about more than just making money and having leisure time to watch sports on weekends. It's supposed to be about freedom.
January 9, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 2
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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