2002 sees calamity of collapsing ethics in U.S.

As a new year dawns upon this dazed and confused nation, it is
only fitting that we take a broad look back at the past year that
redefined the concepts of justice and liberty. 

This country was founded on the ideal of freedom and the promise
of individual liberty. In the wake of national tragedies, however,
2002 became a bleak reminder that ethics are compromised in the
name of national security.

Driven by the intention of ferreting out terrorists from our
midst, the U.S. government set in motion a system that openly
infringes upon the civil rights of ordinary American citizens.
Legislative agendas included the perpetuation of the USA Patriot
Act ““ a program that inflated the investigative and
surveillance powers of the executive branch. Civil liberties were
suspended and ignored on the basis of suspicion.

Within the year, the growing suspicions of a nation in fear was
brought to light, as the Immigration and Naturalization Service
detained thousands of people of “suspicious” nature.
Many were kept for lengthy periods of time and in discreet
locations.

Americans watched in awe, others in apathy and still others in
fear as programs like the Terrorism Information and Prevention
System and the Total Information Awareness Act were put on the
Congressional table. These programs called for spying on a
person’s private life by means of state-of-the-art spy
gadgets or local snitches.

“What does all of this mean?” you might ask. It
means that our country, or at least our government, is prepared to
embrace a surveillance society. The repercussions of the Sept.
11, 2001 tragedy are vast and unfortunate. In order to prevent
further domestic, national or global terrorism, our government has
taken the wise, yet costly step of preparation and prevention
within its borders. One of the expenses of this step is a
sacrifice of civil liberties and privacy rights among unsuspecting
citizens, immigrants and non-immigrants. Even if we are not ready
to give up our rightful freedoms, the government has done it for
us.

Furthermore, we have undertaken more than one rumble on foreign
soil at the expense of the global community The United States
resorted to the quick-fix solution of declaring war on a foreign
and somewhat obscure enemy instead of peacefully rethinking its
policies abroad. The “war on terrorism” targeted
the enemy responsible for the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. But
everything has its price, and the death toll that the Afghan
civilian population has suffered has paid the price in
full. Nobody seems to remember, however, that innocent Afghans
weren’t supposed to be the United States’ enemy.

The war on terrorism went down another endless road when the
Bush administration rallied the country in support of a war in
Iraq. And as 2003 commences, we find ourselves at the brink of
another battle in a land over seas, in a far-off place. As a
nation, we aspire to eliminate a potential threat to global
security, and the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians
will perish in the process.

We survived through the year of 2002. In the chaos of the
post-Sept. 11, 2001 world, the U.S. government tried to pluck out
terrorists and potential terrorists from our presence in order to
revert this country to its past glory: the relative safety from the
evils of the modern world. The expense of this safety we earned was
a few Constitutional freedoms and the stripping of the liberties
from many Americans and thousands of foreign lives. Thank God for
the conventions of the civilized world.