How much are you willing to give up to be safe? That was the question asked on one of the news shows over the weekend. A former head of some agency which is suppose to protect us, said you can not get safer without giving somethings up. He is right, we are a free and open society. We don’t have to show papers every time we get in our car or travel to another city or state. We don’t have to prove we belong where we are unless we are a suspect in a criminal act. And even then they can only detain us for a short time without having to prove why. Running through a metal detector is only in places for public safety and gathering for what ever reason is protected by our constitution. The problem is that it gives us great freedom for good and evil. The problem which this expert stated is that each freedom taken away does not equal a measurable quantity of safety. It means the more we take away the smaller the return on safety. Some things are important, some things have made us considerably safer, but we reach a point where what we lose is greater than what we gain. In other words, we could be living in a prison state, but if you look at those countries that are, they still have safety issues that have not been stopped. The other issue that always comes up is, once those freedoms are taken away, it is almost impossible to get them back. In this country a lot of blood has been spilled for those freedoms. Not just on our behalf but for many around the world. To give all those back because we are afraid seems like a monumental waste!