The price of security is too high

I don't know T.L.Rodgers from a bar of soap but this column has made more impression than others on the same subject.

"I would much rather live as a free man under the highly improbable threat of another significant Al-Qaida attack than I would as a serf, spied on by an oppressive government that can jail me secretly, without charges."

And.....
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Benjamin Franklin.

If, on occasion, the issue seems somewhat remote to me I think about the extreme reactions I sometimes get from politicians when making submissions to select committee. Then I ask myself, if they had the powers to shut me up, would they use them?

We mustn't become so distracted by bogeymen that we lose sight of our freedoms being chiselled away.