land of the free home of the brave conditions apply

While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves? 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence.

Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.Įven as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own - the land of free. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Whether we are viewed as a free country with authoritarian inclinations or an authoritarian nation with free aspirations (or some other hybrid definition), we are clearly not what we once were.Įvery year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. If we are going to adopt Chinese legal principles, we should at least have the integrity to adopt one Chinese proverb: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” We seem as a country to be in denial as to the implications of these laws and policies. The column addresses how the continued rollbacks on civil liberties in the United States conflicts with the view of the country as the land of the free.

Below is today’s column in the Sunday Washington Post.

Land of the free home of the brave conditions apply