Thoughts on 9/11, a decade later

Amendment IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Today is the 10th anniversary of history's worst terrorist attacks against the United States.  All across this great land there have been moments of silence, prayer services, memorials, and the like.  Every one is justly deserved to preserve the memory of those innocent people who died simply because they showed up at work that Tuesday morning.  The surviving families deserve the support of this nation.

Also this weekend, hundreds upon hundreds of American citizens willingly forfeited their "unalienable Rights", simply to travel.  They forfeited those rights in the name of "security and safety"

On September 10, 2001, we would have been breathlessly offended if the same government - "instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" to preserve those unalienable rights - had proposed to digitally peer through our clothing, or subject us to enhanced pat-downs.  We would have cried foul.  We would have protested, standing on our Fourth Amendment, that without probable cause, the government is prohibited from unreasonable searches.

For every digital scan, for every enhanced pat-down, we are besmirching the tragedy of September 11, 2001.  Those dead from that fateful day should haunt our dreams, for we have allowed the murderous terrorists to win.  And win again, again, and yet again at every line at every airport, and every unnecessary traffic checkpoint. 

After the local gas station is robbed, do we allow our police officers to physically search every incoming customer...all in the name of "security"?  Would you tolerate an enhanced pat-down at your favorite bank branch, if they'd been robbed once in a decade?  Would you?

The firefighters, investment bankers, soldiers, EMT's custodians, tourists, flight attendants, and police officers, chaplains, window washers, and tour guides that were murdered ten years ago died in a country that was more free than it is today.  Their memory demands that we remember, and revive, the principles this nation was founded upon.