FREEDOM AND SECURITY
Remarks By Al Gore
As
Prepared for Delivery
Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. November 9, 2003
TO LISTEN SEE... http://www.moveon.org/gore/webcast.html
Read the whole speech!
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Excerpt--
Thank you, Lisa, for that warm and generous introduction. Thank you Zack,
and thank you all for coming here today
I want to thank the American Constitution Society for co-sponsoring today痴
event, and for their hard work and dedication in defending our most basic public values.
And I am especially grateful to Moveon.org, not only for co-sponsoring this
event, but also for using 21st Century techniques to breathe new life into our democracy.
For my part, I知 just a 途ecovering politician・・but
I truly believe that some of the issues most important to America痴 future are ones that all of us should be dealing
with.
And perhaps the most important of these issues is the one I want to talk about
today: the true relationship between Freedom and Security.
So it seems to me that the logical place to start the discussion is with an
accounting of exactly what has happened to civil liberties and security since the vicious attacks against America of September
11, 2001 ・and it痴 important to note at the outset that the Administration and the Congress have brought about
many beneficial and needed improvements to make law enforcement and intelligence community efforts more effective against
potential terrorists.
But a lot of other changes have taken place that a lot of people don稚 know about and that
come as unwelcome surprises. ...
As John Adams wrote in 1780, ours is a government of laws and not of men.
What is at stake today is that defining principle of our nation, and thus the very nature of America. As the Supreme Court
has written, 徹ur Constitution is a covenant running from the first generation of Americans to us and then to future
generaｭtions.・The Constitution includes no wartime exception, though its Framers knew well the reality of war.
And, as Justice Holmes reminded us shortly after World War I, the Constitution痴 principles only have value if we apply
them in the difficult times as well as those where it matters less.
The question before us could be of no greater moment: will we continue to
live as a people under the rule of law as embodied in our Constitution? Or will we fail future generations, by leaving them
a Constitution far diminished from the charter of liberty we have inherited from our forebears? Our choice is clear.
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