Civil liberties debate leaves much of America cold

Civil liberties debate leaves much of America cold - Yahoo! News (Reuters)

That it does is troubling.

I also think that this is due partly to the erosion of education in this country. Just one more argument to press for better education!

Excerpts from this article:

Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic member of the September 11 Commission which investigated the 2001 attacks, said the numbers reflected an indifference which was discouraging, but not surprising.

"Unless it directly affects an individual, people are not as vigilant as they
ought to be and perhaps not as educated as they ought to be on the importance of
our constitutional privacy and civil liberties protections," he said.

Other analysts say the polls highlight underlying resignation due to an erosion of civil liberties over time.

"There's been an assault on Americans' privacy. Everything we do in our society seems to be monitored, every purchase we make is collected by private entities. I think people are just used to it today," said Lewis Katz, a law professor and privacy expert at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.