Congratulations to Lucas Fenske for his column, "Patriot Act Questions Inalienable Rights."
Indeed, it does.
Unfortunately, the average American has a Rhett Butlerian reaction: "Frankly, they don't give a damn."
That is why it is comforting to see a college student express an informed concern about the Patriot Act's capacity to empower executive branch injustices.
But the insidious and frightening Sept. 11 terrorist attack changed the algorithm of our security. We live now under a Damoclean sword of war. Many Americans willingly accept a trade-off of diminished civil liberties for a broadened protection of their lives.
Suspensions of habeas corpus for interminable detentions of criminal suspects, suspension of the Fourth Amendment and the prohibition of public protest of "unreasonable searches and seizure" and the denial of due process are happening.
But this World War II navigator, however, is more optimistic than pessimistic that our civil liberties will be irreversibly crippled.
Looking back, I was just as optimistic before 110,000 Japanese-American citizens were incarcerated in concentration camps for three years.
The content of the character of Lucas Fenske and many members of his generation are this nation's conscience. If they continue to speak up, they will learn that history and American democracy's resiliency are on their side. As Churchill promised, "(The world) was made to be wooed and won by youth."
