Doing it on the border....

This is how I feel, I like the bill of rights and it worries me when those guarantees are diminished, for any reason. After 9/11 the former head of the British Security Service (MI5) commented that Americans would have to get used to the loss of freedoms in order to protect the nation against terrorism. She doesn't get it, what is the difference between losing your freedoms through the fear of on-going terrorist attacks or having it legislated away. The reason this diverse, multi-cultural, melting pot of a country endures and works is due to these freedoms and an economy that allows us to support and tend to our families. Remove either of these components and the strength provided by diversity, becomes the wedge that divides other countries into situations such as Kosovo, Rwanda, and Chechnya.

Many of those who would curtail our freedoms domestically, cry for seamless borders to facilitate the movement of people and the goods that fuel the economy. This is a contradiction in the name of security. It would seem to make more sense to screen those entering the country extensively at the border where some freedoms (specifically the 4th amendment) have historically, both through legislation and judicial review, been lowered and keep our freedoms within the borders intact. While this does not consider those who enter the country illegally, the vast majority of those coming into the country do not swim the Rio Grande River or cross the Northern border between legitimate entry points and this includes the 9/11 terrorists.