Check out this Georgetown Student's blog post

[Canuckistanian]

http://scoplaw.blogs.com/scoplaw/2006/01/comments_on_gon.html

Here's an excerpt about the banner that appeared in this photo:

The Franklin Quote

Conservative fear-mongers (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004368.htm) are quick to do two things: (1) assume the banner’s paraphrased quote reflects some kind of ignorance by its makers, and (2) leap on the quote to show that Franklin was advocating a trade-off or a balance of some liberty for security.

We paraphrased because the whole quote (a) didn't fit on the sheet and (b) the "actual" quote is debated since it was one of his speech "catch phrases" so there are a lot of different quotes that are similar.

Without getting into too many details, it’s pretty safe to say that Franklin and the other Founding Fathers distrusted centralized authority (monarchy) which could be abused or used arbitrarily. Thus they set up a system which had internal checks and balances (oversight and limits to power).

The full Franklin quote is as follows:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Essential Liberties might include such things as:

* the freedom from warrantless executive spying on the private correspondence.
* the freedom not to be indefinitely held and tortured without recourse to an attorney.
* the right to know what your government is doing to whom.
* the right to know why your government really wants to do important things, like going to war.
* the right to dissent and to make your voice heard.

And, honestly, even if I was to be offered complete Safety (financial security for my life, the guarantee no one would ever hurt or rob me, easy access to adequate medical care, etc.) I still would give up that safety just to know what the Government was doing in my name. Perhaps that’s just my Americanness speaking.

And there's much more. I was astounded.

[babylonsister]

1. Thanks for digging this up; it's enlightening to read

why our potential future lawyers are a tad concerned!

[Canuckistanian]

2. It give ME hope

These are some thoughtful, dedicated people

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I like this part:

To bring it home: Let’s say that the company you work for is worried that someone in the company is leaking trade secrets to a rival. Legitimate security concern. Or the school board is worried that some parents might be abusing their kids. Legitimate safety concern.

But does either kind of situation call for your boss(!) or the school board(!) to snoop around in your mail, to listen to your phone calls, to get a list of the library books you borrow, the videos you rent, the searches that you do on google? How would you feel about that? You’d probably tell them to go to hell. And rightly so.

What if they said you had some how implicitly agreed to this by working at the company or sending your child to that school? Yeah, I'd still tell them to go to hell.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Yeah, I was hoping someone would see that.

Great Stuff. The author of the blog is unnamed.

Just a poet who happens to go to law school.

[unhappycamper]

5. Good find.

It's nice to see our kids (yes, I'm that old) understand what is occuring in/to this country. Let's hope these young adults are able to continue the fight for our liberties.