I think I basically agree with TOM. The examples of what happened during the civil war and world war 2 are still disturbing though. Particularly in World War 2, where Japanese American citizens were put away in camps without cause, other than their race.

But in this case... it's not a choice between taking extra trouble to investigate arab men or not investigating arab men. It's a choice between spending extra trouble a few people, or everyone. And since the members of Al-Qaeda are almost nearly exclusively arab, we can spare many people additional trouble.

I've read 1984 myself, and feel strongly that our liberties need to be preserved over absolute security. I don't think the government not releasing all critical information that our enemies might use counts as censorship though, and I certainly hope the measures that are being taken to tap and investigate of terrorist suspects will have little effect on me. The government asking the media not to release Bin Laidn videotaps isn't censorship of a dissenting opinion-we just don't want to be his megaphone, and the messages might be being used to give orders to cells abroad.

During wartime, the rules tend to change. We're in a much easier situation than we were in, in world war 2. We're aware of where our leaders are, what they're doing, what our troops are doing... and we can find out about any battle or fight instantly. But sacrifices of not knowing sensitive information do have to be made sometimes.

Balancing security and freedom is a serious topic, and I respect the speaker's willingness to bring these issues up for discussion. I disagree with where she's trying to draw the line, but I would not have tried to boo her out.

We can't afford to treat terrorism like another law enforcement crime, using the standard rules about obtaining evidence, and prosecuting offenders. We're treating it like an act of war. I certainly hope we don't redo our entire system along the lines we're using now, but I believe it's going to be neccessary to deal with this problem.

Mark"Not off school until Friday"N