The "Slippery Slope" Saga

I've always been in favor of law enforcement- FBI, local, state, etc. I worked with them nearly all of my adult life, and am 99% on their side. But there are some facts that people should be aware of: their effectiveness and/or negative impact rests on their leadership.

Take a case in point: Today, Fox News is reporting about some changes in an FBI procedure manual that have some people worried about expanded powers to investigate "innocent" Americans. Officers are allowed more individual leeway in checking a person or organization out prior to starting a major investigation - such as going through someone's garbage or attending a few meetings of a suspect organization. On a good day, I don't see a problem. It depends on the leadership.

First off, you have my permission to check out my garbage. It will stink, it will be full of shreds of junk mail,and there will be lots of fish guts or dog poop and dog hair. My husband likes to fish and my dog well, he's a dog. At any rate, I guess you could call me an "innocent" American. And in ORDINARY circumstances I have nothing to hide and don't care what the government looks at. They can attend my church, monitor our ladies' group,listen in on my phone conversations (dullsville)and sit in on a Writer's Meeting and I don't give a rip. As long as there is a drop of common sense in the law enforcement community, I don't care.

The problem comes when government loses its grip on reality and becomes so alarmed at those ordinary things that they get paranoid and start making things up.

Case in point: The government was terrified of Martin Luther King, Jr. They believed he was subversive. The guy marched and made noise, but never once threatened violence or war or any other inciteful phrase. But the government was so concerned that file rooms full of paper were created, and a lot of money was spent (uh, our money) on ill-advised investigations.

Paranoia creates lies. It causes innocent people to be arrested and thrown in jail. It causes death, destruction, discord, and other problems-because the leadership is so worried that they make things up or overreact to the things people say. We need a balance as we move forward to curb terrorism and the investigation of it. Freedom is only stable when wise people build and protect it- lose the wisdom and evil takes over.