With terrorism being the new enemy of the United States, many civil libertarians fear we are going to lose some of our basic rights in order to try to halt the viscous attacks.

Others think it is OK to sacrifice some of our most basic rights as human beings to ensure assaults on innocent people, like the one in New York City, don’t happen again.

Sacrificing freedoms and rights is the absolute worst thing our country could do right now.

Think about it. What separates America from other nations of the world?

Our freedoms. We grant power to our government, the government doesn’t grant us our power, therefore the government can neither take away our power nor freedom.

However, we the people can take away our personal freedoms if we aren’t careful.

And while many think that sounds fine and dandy just as long as no one dies again, it most certainly is not.

Some would call it saving lives; I call it loosing a war. People like Osama bin Laden want America to fail. They want to show the world that our way of life does not work and cannot work.

To sacrifice our liberty is to show the terrorists they are right – our way of life cannot work. It is giving into the enemy before we have even had the chance to hit back.

I could not believe what I heard last night from a caller on Fox News. The cable news channel was running a poll asking viewers if they thought racial profiling was a practice that should be tolerated in cases of terrorism.

The first person to call in said he believed racial profiling is OK in cases relating to terrorism. He said it is not fair but life is not fair.

Ridiculous. We have this phrase in this country that ensures every single citizen that this type of thing does not happen – it’s called equality under the law.

This means that everyone in the United States of America is the same person as far as law goes. It does not matter if you are white, black, Muslim, Christian, man or woman. You have the same rights as everyone else, regardless of your race or color.

The Fourth Amendment guarantees all people of this country the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures on our property.

Now, think about this. Is it reasonable to profile a person based on race?

If you use your brain it is not. Clearly, most Arabs and Persians who live in this country are not terrorists. So a person’s national origin is not a justifiable cause to search someone, which is exactly what racial profiling is.

And whoever disagrees, imagine if you were in this situation., We can flip it around. You are a white person with German ancestry during World War II. Would being at war with Germany be a legitimate excuse to search you and your property? God no.

Another very similar situation involves wire-tapping of telephones. Many people want to ease the restrictions on tapping in cases of suspected terrorism.

Wire tapping is a sticky subject. Why should the government be able to hear everything you say on your own phone without your permission? They can’t hide in your closet and listen to what you say while you are on the phone.

And don’t get me wrong, the other side is going a bit far as well. Some civil libertarians are freaking out saying we are going to loose our basic rights, but it seems like they are pulling these basic rights out of the sky.

They are concerned about people not being allowed to take things like bags and coolers into sporting events. Since when do I have the right to take a cooler of beer into a White Sox game? Never.

How about this one – they are pissed at rental car companies who are handing over evidence to authorities about people renting their car. Yeah, that is called following the law. Are they supposed to harbor the criminals?

When you know or suspect a crime, it is good citizenship to report it and tell them everything you know. It is not a violation of a person’s rights. The violation of a person’s right comes when a person has a crime committed against them.

I must say, it is a good thing we have people who get a little carried away with what they think their rights are. They keep the racial profilers and government intrusion in check.

We must be careful here. We cannot lose rights but we must be aware of what are rights are. The country is in a very sticky situation right now, but we cannot lose focus on what is important to the nation. At the same time we must be safe. Let’s just use common sense and look at our own Constitution for the answers.

Zach Calef is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids. He is an assistant news editor at the Daily.