A Little Liberty Lost, A Little Safety Gained. Thats No Way to Gain!
I recently went to a local UPS store to send a birthday gift to my brother. While there, I was told I could not send my package without first showing a government issued ID. I sarcastically mentioned to the clerk, a 20 something man with LONG hair and a couple nose pearsings, that this was one more intrusion by the government. The clerk was quick to add that it was definitely not 
the government but UPS’s own policy. I quipped that I didn’t think it was their idea albeit their policy. Another customer standing nearby jumped in and said that he had been a marine for 20 years and was willing to do whatever made everyone
safe (as if that made him an expert); So . . . he was with the clerk. Finally I said that freedom is a thing that is easily lost and only regained with difficulty.
Today its the ability to mail a package by a private postal carrier. Tomorrow, its the right to buy something else, or get a business license or enroll for essential services. I would have thought our marine friend from this story would have valued his freedom more since he put his life on the line to preserve it. Ben Franklin knew a little bit about it when he said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”. Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor”, November 11, 1755; as cited in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 6, p. 242.
Another sort of famous person advised how to maintain freedom. He said “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined”. Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, June 5, 1788, in_Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.45 (Philadelphia, 1836)
Just saying.
