So as I was listening to NPR this morning, I got to hear about all the new security precautions at the newly re-opened Statue of Liberty; the signs saying, "If you see something, say something" the new bomb detector that everyone has to go through, the black-clad S.W.A.T. police with assault rifles.

I've never been to the statue, I saw it from a distance in pre-9/11 New York City, but I always figured it would be a tourist trap. I'm sure it was, but as I listened to the radio this morning, I had this feeling that I'll never see the statue the way it was in our youth, let alone what it used to symbolize.

But the real reason I'm writing this blog entry is to share the following quote with you. I don't remember quite who said it, it was a bigwig at the monument, but I had to keep repeating it to myself as I came into work this morning, "Liberty is doing everything you can to protect yourself, your family, and the resources around you. That is what we're doing, that is liberty."

I think the idea is, "What good is liberty if you're not safe" and this somehow changes into, "Safety must come before liberty." I know which I'd choose.

Not to mix religion and politics or anything, but I have two religious points to make, and I'd like to use them to call out those zealots in the Bush administration: 1) You are meant to trust in God and not fear for your safety, and not sin for fear's sake, and 2) freedom comes from God, not from the barrel of a gun.

In S.W.A.T. we trust.