September 11 Digital Archive

tp172.xml

Title

tp172.xml

Source

born-digital

Media Type

story

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2003-03-03

TomPaine Story: Story

The aftermath of September 11th has been a chilling affirmation of the
saying just because youre paranoid doesnt mean theyre not out to get you.
Many people disregarded the fears of civil libertarians before the attacks, but
now that our Justice Department has abandoned the sacred rights of the
Constitution and thousands of people have found themselves imprisoned without
due process is the land of the free, it has been proved that those fears were
warranted.
As activists pushed aside their agendas in the wake of September 11th,
the forces of intolerance were allowed to grow in power. Homeland Security
Director Tom Ridge warned longshoremen on the west coast that they were
interfering with the War on Terrorism because they were fighting for a better
contract. The White House and its allies in the oil industry used national
security as an excuse for drilling in the Arctic in an attempt to trump
environmentalists and scientific evidence that domestic oil drilling would be
useless.
All Americans must stand in solidarity against such a tragedy affecting
so many innocent people. But as we grieve, we should never be afraid to stand
our ground, and we should never allow our government to exploit national
tragedies to stop people from doing the most American thing of all: fighting
for peace, justice and security in order to form a more perfect union.

Citation

“tp172.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed November 15, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/663.