At 06:31 PM 4/27/96 -0700, CyberAngels Director : Colin Gabriel Hatcher wrote:

Peter Trei wrote about my signature:

...

It's this last sig-quote that bothers me. It's worth noting that, unlike the other two, it has no attribution. It looks like an inversion of Benjamin Franklin's:

" They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Historical Review of Pennsylvania

It is an inversion of that quotation and it does indeed sum up our focus. It has no name on it because I switched it around to make a motto for our work. Not that I disagree with Franklin though. The comment is true both ways around.

I find that to be a disgusting opinion. Quite to the contrary, I think that whenever it _appears_ that giving up "a little liberty" would provide more security, there are other ways of providing that same security that don't require any loss of liberty. For just one example, it is well known that the "war on drugs" actually causes a great deal of street crime. But a person who doesn't see this, or doesn't want to admit this might see that crime and conclude that some loss of liberty (like, for instance, giving the police the authority to stop and frisk all passers-by whenever they want) would improve safety. What he doesn't admit is that by legalizing drugs nearly all of that crime would disappear, vastly improving safety. So it's a false trade-off, in both directions. Authoritarians may disagree. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com