Dissenting Opinions

An interesting thing is happening in this country during this “war on terror.” While you will never hear me calling from the mountain that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, I certainly am concerned about the general attitude of tolerance in this country. I am not sure why I expect the United States to exist in a space closer to the ideals on which it was founded, like integrity, justice and equality. These concepts, as abstract as they are, are so beautifully articulated in our constitution. I further realize how much further away we were in 1776, and how far we have come. It’s not far enough.

“The Enemy Within,” is an editorial by Dahlia Lithwick posted on Slate.com. In it, she references the Supreme Court Decision last Thursday in Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the President could not, even with Congress, deny the Guantanamo detainee’s the right to habeas corpus. Lithwick warns that this “as all the big enemy-combatant cases have been – both enormously important and relatively insignificant.” She describes Justice Scalia’s dramatic dissenting opinion quoting his closing: “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”

It is a difficult thing to hold ones’ integrity ahead of ones’ profit or safety. It is rarely if ever easier to the right thing. It is however hard to swallow the thought that we have people sitting on the bench of our Supreme Court who would chose what is safe over what we know to be right. To “detain” people indefinitely without due process can never be right.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin