By Brad Matthews ’11

I am worried for the freedom of our individual citizens. A wretched specter is hovering over us, collecting information and monitoring tens of thousands of Americans, trying to find ever-elusive terrorists with a very loose definition of who is a “terrorist.” This is the modern witch hunts, a dangerous threat to freedom. With economic troubles, social ills are becoming illuminated, and the tensions in our society may explode into a massive crucifixion of anyone deemed too suspicious by the government. It is a modern Red Scare, one I’d like to call the Crescent Scare.

I refer to a current U.S. investigation, one, using local authorities, state homeland security offices and the FBI to compile employment history, financial documents and other sensitive information on tens of thousands “suspicious” Americans, according to reporting by the Washington Post. These suspicions come not from the federal intelligence services, but from local sheriffs and even citizens. This allows anyone to report anyone- it’s a dog eat dog world, kiddies. You have a grudge on some jerk in your town- report him as a terrorist! With no restrictions and little oversight, your annoying counterpart will soon be burdened with a federal investigation! You’ll ruin his life, with the ease of reporting a suspicious crime!

Another worrying and quite terrifying prospect is that these local agents at “fusion centers” are tasked with understanding the intricacies of terrorism with little to no training. Great. Now that the men in black have failed, let’s let any Joe Schmoe with an eye for “terrorists” go try and hunt the greatest national security threat we face. We are bringing fists to a bomb fight, folks, and it doesn’t look to optimistic. The scant training local authorities receive in some areas comes from self-styled experts with extreme views on Muslims, terrorism, and the scope of terrorist activity in our country. Not only is our domestic security apparatus going to be run by untrained amateurs, they’re being trained by the hawkish paranoid nutjobs! We’re trusting America’s safety to these buffoons?

According to the Post, one “expert” in South Dakota advised to tap the phones of local Muslim student groups and mosques. This sort of blatant, legitimate and official discrimination is scary. Our country’s democratic tradition is under fire. In the name of security, an entire group of people has been maligned, ranted and raved against and hated for nine years, and that hatred shows no signs of abating. Innocents will be damned, and Big Brother is coming to Washington.

By allowing for the mass surveillance of thousands of Americans, we are opening the door for more domestic violations of liberty. Is nothing sacred anymore? The freedoms upon which this country was built are being stripped away. A recent Newsweek article mentioned that the American republic could go the way of Weimar Germany, legitimately and fairly electing an awful nightmare of a dictator. Suddenly, I find that more and more likely.

With this expansion of government power, the individual, long suppressed, will now lie prostrate before the altar of government power and government information. Will our future be filled with televisions and thoughtcrime and dystopia? Our government is breaking the covenant of freedom the people have kept alive since the Declaration. Ben Franklin once said that those who would give up liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. America is giving up her liberties, all to chase a phantom of danger, the idea of terrorism. We are fighting to save our republic, many supporters say, but we are losing it in the process.