Personal Freedom In America Essay

Americans are obsessed with personal freedom. Personal freedom is so important to them that they are often unwilling to take the necessary measures to protect that freedom. If security measures go against their principles of freedom they would rather take the risks then compromise this sense of liberty.

As an example, having a security guard at an airport or store empty the contents of one’s bag or pockets offends most American’s sense of personal freedom. But that is one of the very measures necessary to protect the personal freedom of every American—including the freedom and security of the person being searched.

In Israel, we are not so sensitive. We have less privacy and we understand the need to compromise our personal freedom in the interest of greater security. As Uri Dromi of the Israel Democratic Institute said, speaking of the Jewish state, “The question of civil liberties is always in the shadow of security.” Israelis ask, “If you don’t exist, what’s the point of having civil rights?” he noted. “The first right is the right to live, and this is what Israelis get in the milk of their mothers. There is security and then, there’s democracy. People in America value democracy first” (Jerusalem Post, April 20, 2007).

With a warrior nation, fighting, dying, and sudden attacks, are all par for

When the attack comes, he should know how to respond. A civilian can be caught off guard. In Israel, the whole nation responds as the combat warrior. Dromi commented about the students’ response at Virginia Tech, “The big difference is that for them it looks like out of the blue. For us, it’s a sad way of life.” Israelis are experienced with war and terror. “Once they have this kind of basic preparedness in the back of their minds, if this happens, people don’t fall off their feet thinking that something unthinkable has happened, which is the feeling that people have here [in the United States] today”