Ben Franklin v. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

The Shocking Truth!!!

Earlier this month, this page noted the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s true Renaissance figures.

So perhaps we should also note that one of Ben’s best quotations is being hijacked by a few of today’s less than Renaissance figures.

During a speech by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at Georgetown University this week, a group of students disrupted his talk and held up a banner with this alleged quote from Ben Franklin — "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

Possibly the students deliberately distorted the quotation, or — more likely — they never paid attention in their history classes. Either way, the quote is wrong. What Mr. Franklin actually said — first penning it in 1775 — was "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security."

Those two little words, of course, make all the difference. Listening in to terrorists as they discuss plans to kill innocents is not giving up an "essential liberty." The Constitution says very little about school lunch programs or agricultural subsidies but it does give the president the right to defend this nation and protect Americans.

The NSA surveillance program that Mr. Gonzalez was defending in his speech does not intrude on essential liberties, but is used to provide security and safety to American citizens. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s another Ben Franklin saying that might be appropriate to contemporary events.