Good post, Haggis!
Your desription of the 'enemy within' being hard to recognize is spot on, for many reasons, not the least of which is that the erosion is usually long, spanning generations. What may be offensive to us may not be so 'bad' for those coming after us-- after all, if they've never experienced what we have, there is nothing for them to miss.
Having said that, Haggis, I take issue with the phrase you used, that America faces the " (Govt) uses the threat of terrorism ro strip away too many freedoms". The threat is real-- as real as it gets. The events of 9/11 changed things here-- some for the better, many for the worse-- but those changes were forced upon those of living here in the States. While it may be a while before these issues work out, I believe they will. One of the nice things about democracies is that they are self correcting, despite the ever doomsayers at each election cycles. Frm Carter to Readon, Bush to Clinton, from Trudeau to Clark, Mulroony to Chretien, the ballot box is usually id the great equalizer.
I also believe that democracies make choices-- which can for example, easily expalin the differences between Americans and Canadians. We watch the same TV, eat the same food (I will refrain from making a haggis joke) speak the same language and wear the same clothes. Yet, Canadians are different-- as a result of the choices they make in terms of societal values. While it is always tempting to natuarlly feel superior, those kind of comparisons don't usually carry much weight, as differences in populations, state (province) vs federal govt relations, etc are so different, making comparison no more than doodling for the statisticians.
I want to relate an incident that happened to me post 9/11. I was in the air on my way home from Montreal when the tragedy occured. Our plane was forced to land in Atlanta, as the airport in my city was shut down as it was too full of planes that were grounded. Too make a long story short, while in Atlanta, on the morning of 9/13, I was walking on Peachtree (wanted to see the convoy out of the CDC) when I walked by the Red Cross blood center.
In the line, were old lady blue hairs, pierced punk rockers and everything in between. Mostly, people were quiet, with a few hushed conversations going on between some of the most unlikely people. I eavesdropped on a conversation between a well dressed elderly black gentleman and what was obviously a local 'bubba'.
The older gentleman nodded in agreement as the 'bubba' declared, "The war between the states ended 2 days ago." It retrospect, he was right.
Not that there aren't still problems, or won't be, but the tenor and tone have changed. On 9/10, the big issue in the south was the Georgia state flag issue. That issue was no longer on the front burner in political priorities. Even today, the 'stars and bars' no longer carry the significance they once did.
My point is, yes, things here have changed, as I said, some for the better, some for the not so good. In the end, as in all great democracies, I believe things will even out at the ballot box.
As to your last question, "How, then, do we know when we are losing our freedoms? How do we know when something is presented as a freedom but is really a constraint?", is a question, we should struggle with. If nothing else, it keeps us involved with our democracy.
