Sheldon Richman on Liberty, Security, and Terrorism

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Credit: FBI

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

It would be nice if Benjamin Franklin's famous aphorism were as widely believed as it is quoted, writes Sheldon Richman. But the increased calls for government surveillance after the Boston Marathon attacks suggests we should not count on it. As Richman notes, we must be ever vigilant against the predictable efforts of politicians to exploit the attack in order to aggrandize their own power.