It is ironic that the American people can so readily fight a war to "free" other countries from what they claim to be oppressive regimes, when they are still willing to put up with the same civil liberties violations they are freeing other nations (like Afghanistan) from on their own soil.President Bush continually says Saddam Hussein is evil, that his Iraqi subjects have no civil liberties, and that it is the United States' obligation to liberate these oppressed Iraqis. Still, Bush's own administration does not respect the rights that are supposedly granted to American citizens.

Now, I am neither comparing the American government to any of the dictatorships abroad, nor saying that America is a bad place to live. I love this country and believe it is one of the best places on Earth to live. However, I do believe that in the direction we are headed, it soon won't be.

During the '90s, the gradual erosion of civil rights occurred very slowly, and was almost unnoticeable. Yet, ever since Sept. 11, the rate at which liberties are curtailed is alarming. Take for example the recent case of the three "suspected terrorists" who turned out to be medical students heading to Miami to start their internships. According to newscasts, three American citizens (not that I think that American citizens have more civil rights than others) were held for 17 hours, inside a van on the side of the street for supposedly driving past a tollbooth without paying -- a tollbooth it later turned out they had actually properly exited. They were held without being charged, without being allowed their one phone call, with their clothing and suitcases searched and their cars turned inside out.

In defense of this clear violation of civil rights, people might say that these men were overheard talking, in English, about something happening on Sept. 13, 2002 and therefore this hearsay justified the police in stopping them. Some feel these men who "look like terrorists" should have known better and not have said what they said. Granted, they should have used some discretion and kept their voices down if they were joking about such a sensitive issue as Sept. 11; however, they still have the right to say whatever they please under the Bill of Rights - especially amongst themselves.

If the FBI did suspect them of some terrorist plot, they could have acted within the law and carried out an investigation and monitored them instead of violating their rights as Americans and holding them in custody for no valid reason.

WHERE IS ALL THE OUTRAGE? A country that prides itself on the protection of liberties seems to have fallen silent when these liberties are taken away from its own citizens.

What happened to these three men, reminds me of what was going on during the French Revolution under anti-Revolutionary Maximillien Robespierre. During his reign of terror, many French citizens were killed or arrested by mere rumors of them being revolutionaries.

Yet, America falls silent.

Before we go to war to impose our morality on others (something I think is inherently wrong), let us at least impose our morality on ourselves. Let us protect the rights that Americans have relished for centuries.

But, then again, maybe I am being un-American for writing this, and should be locked up as terrorist. Maybe our country doesn't need people crying out in defense of rights that our ancestors fought so hard to attain. After all, in a time of war, we all have to sacrifice something; I guess this is an ultimate sacrifice for an American -- his or her rights. So, maybe these three men and the many others like them are just casualties of the "War on Terror."
Just ask, when a Muslim's rights are taken away in the name of "national security," who is to say that your rights aren't next? Who is to say that someday the government won't hold you as a threat to national security? Who is to say that one day the cops won't stop you and search your car against your wishes, eventually being forced to release you because of their failure to find any wrongdoing?

Except, to paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemiller's classic poem about the Holocaust, when they come for you, there won't be anyone left to stand up for your rights; everyone else will already have been interned by the government.

It seems the biggest threat of all to what President Bush defines as "national security" is simply American people exercising their rights and speaking out against such policies as holding people in custody as a "material witness" to something that about which they have no clue. If the current practice of calling people who constantly speak out for civil rights "un-American" persists, then sooner or later it will become "un-American" to speak of these rights or even to exercise them.

Thus, next time Attorney General John Ashcroft calls someone un-American, remember neither he nor the current administration gets to define what an "American" is. It is, in fact, defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Therefore, I submit that the real danger that faces Americans today is not the terrorists themselves, but rather their own government's response to so-called terrorists. The real peril lies when our government starts to impede on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and justifying its actions in the name of "national security."

As President Bush said, "You are either with us or against us." I am currently speaking out against the Justice Department's unjust policies, so I naturally must be a terrorist. I wait to be held as a "material witness.