Let's see if it gets published

My letter submitted to our local paper today:

America has been called the home of the brave. Recent letters to the News Journal suggest, however, that cowardice has gripped the country. Patrick Henry’s famous quote, “Give me liberty or give me death!” has been replaced by “Please take away my liberties, because I’m scared to death!” If our enemies “hate us for our freedoms”, then they must be smiling as they read out citizens’ offers to allow the federal executive to spy on them, even illegally, if it will make us “safer”. It’s not at all clear that even with good intelligence, this administration is competent to protect its citizens from harm, as both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina made tragically clear.

I urge all citizens of this country to be brave and defend your liberties, even if you weren’t using them anyway. Loyalty to your President can be a good thing, but you dishonor all of the brave people who have struggled and died for our freedoms when you throw them away. If we offer up our liberty in return for safety, we will be neither the home of the brave nor the land of free. We will become instead a country of cowards, rushing into the arms of Big Brother.