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Out of the many moral issues that are debated in our country, the issue of personal liberty, may be of the greatest importance. Personal rights and liberties are guaranteed by the Constitution, which was written over 200 years ago and there is no reason why it should be debated, whether citizens are able to posses these liberties.

Many people would completely agree with this statement. However, these are the same people who follow blindly with whatever their government tells them, even if it means giving up some of their own freedoms, in fear of a foreign enemy. The Patriot Act is a recent bill passed by congress, which will allow our rights to be expendable for the sake of fighting terrorism. This act directly violates the first and fourth amendments of the constitution and people should be aware of it.

Our rights should not be expendable no matter what the reason. Our rights are what separate us from third world countries and if the people of America don't realize this, they are no better off than the people of Haiti or Cuba. This is true, because no matter the amount of food or clothing Americans own, we are on the fringes of becoming members of the third world community; where all countries have in common the fear that their possessions, including family members, can be taken away at any time without reason or warning.

The Patriot Act, which was passed on October 26, 2001, is the most outrageous act of tyranny and government abuse since Executive Order 9066 was passed in 1942; allowing for the displacement of Japanese Americans from their homes into detention camps. In both cases, the federal government was guilty of violating the constitution by taking away citizens' rights in order to bring stability and order, to a country that had been devastated by major attacks on its own soil.

However, these acts ended up doing more harm than good. The Japanese Internment camps, imprisoned approximately 120,000 Japanese citizens in fear, that they may had been spies for the Japanese army. This was devastating for the Japanese community as most Japanese Americans lost complete faith in their government. The imprisonment also sent a message that a person's rights could be spared if felt necessary by the United States government. Our government has taken a small step in sacrificing the rights of its citizens by passing the Patriot Act which has made government wiretapping on U.S citizens legal.

The question can be asked: Is it worth resorting to such an extreme measure

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