.  :  |  A R C H A I C  |  :  .     ______________
           .  :  |   N E T W O R K S  |   :  .

The world has changed. September 11, 2001 is a new day of infamy. America, that day, payed the ultimate and final price for a free and open society. Now we ask, is the price truly worth freedom? Benjamin Franklin’s answer over two hundred years ago was this:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”

In the near future, we will revisit questions already answered. We arrive one step closer to always being watched. Encryption software, for which online banking and secure internet communications rely on, is being challenged again, soon after export restrictions were lifted. Nothing has changed - weak encryption is easily cracked by anyone. The only people with access to secure encryption will be those who the government doesn’t want to use it. After all, who owns a simple mathematic equation?

The problem is an easily defined one - in a open society with the relative freedom that Americans enjoy, the terrorist receives the same rights as one’s next door neighbor. If America is to be an example to the world, it’s basic values must not be compromised. If the terrorists involved the the WTC demise were truly “Attacking Freedom itself” (as President George W. Bush, Jr. claims), how can we allow the terrorists to limit freedoms, when we are to be defending them with our very lives, as our brothers and sisters were forced to, while eating breakfast, answering messages, and checking voicemail?

To change our way of life is to allow the terrorists to win their fatwa (holy war) against America. Are we to expected to just allow ourselves to be monitored at all times, in PUBLIC? Are we to succumb to the rage and violence, indeed inhumanity the terrorists exhibit, and let prejudice against Arabic peoples cloud our “American Dream” of harmony among all peoples? Are we to close the doors to a home in which we evicted the true owners, and selfishly hoarde any temporary security we can find?

As Americans, we cannot allow our fellow citizen’s sacrifice of their very lives to be desecrated by giving into their killers. Allegedly, the same killers our own government helped to create.

Having said such, I’ve updated the website with new poetry. Terrorists can bomb embassies, spread fear, destroy economies and skyscrapers that have taken years to build, but they cannot take away the spirit. Unfortunately, there’s no place in politics and government for those with such spirit.