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"A Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind": Listening vs. Lecturing to the World
From: Columbia University
| By:
Eric Foner |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
Civil liberties have often been compromised in the United States in times of war and social conflict. Protections of civil liberties are a recent and fragile achievement. Originating in social movements from abolitionism in the 1830s and 1840s to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, these liberties were only recently accorded strong legal enforcement, explains Columbia University historian Eric Foner.
On September 13, 2002, Foner and other panelists spoke at a Columbia University Law School Forum, "The Constitution and National Security: A False Dichotomy." Reflecting on the anniversary of September 11, 2001, Foner emphasizes the need to think historically about these events and their aftermath, rather than mythically. Citing examples of severe restrictions on civil liberties in American history from World War I to the Cold War, Foner says that this history helps to explain why Americans today appear to tolerate the stigmatizing of certain groups on the basis of ethnic heritage, and government repression of unpopular views.
Foner notes that although President Bush explains the attack on the World Trade Center as a hatred of freedom, in fact many free countries are not subjected to such acts. The attacks, while utterly unjustifiable, were a reaction to American power and its uses; a fact that helps to explain the growing distrust in the past year of American motives in the rest of the world. |
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