Like many others, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when the inauguration was complete. One of the weights that lifted away was concern, personal and professional, over how far our Constitutional rights could be eroded in the name of security.
We had experienced the suspension of habeus corpus rights for those in Guantanemo. Our government had proven its willingness to forego some of our most precious rights and international obligations for the sake of detaining those people we feared so badly. It is all too easy to imagine that same suspension of rights soon being applied to a citizen with alleged ties to those in Guantanemo. Once that suspension is justified the next step is tying the crimes we fear to national security, a step that apparently would have justified a suspension of due process for our citizens accused of ordinary home-grown, domestic crimes.
While these thoughts may border on paranoia to some, the Constitution is based on the fear of unbridled power held by the framers. The understanding that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely was the motivating force behind our system of checks and balances–one designed to obstruct the use of such power.
We now officially have an executive that has affirmed the obligation to protect the values that form the foundation for the Consitution, even in times of fear and for the possible benefit of the people we fear. Now our President has promised to preserve national security and defend our core values at the same time. He has promised not to forego due process to imprison those we suspect and to abstain from inflicting torture to gain information. Were this not the case, I maintain we would soon be in a position to say “we have seen the enemy, and it is us.”