Why I Chose The Patriot Act

            I first heard of the Patriot Act three weeks after the most dreadful terrorist act to fall on American soil hit. There was a debate brewing over security versus civil liberties that our professor had instigated in the class. Initially, still feeling a thick afterglow of 9/11 shock, I felt OK giving up some civil liberties in the wake of 9/11. I made the comparison of the civil liberties we could potentially lose, to the loss the victims of 9/11 felt. Put that way, and who could not support the Patriot Act? .
             The Act would synchronize our federal government to unprecedented levels. A big complaint into why we missed 9/11, was the ineptitude and bureaucracy of the federal government. The different federal agencies were so big and inefficient, that they could not coordinate with each other, and the Patriot Act was the answer to this problem. The act also would modernize law enforcement into the 21st century, where cell phones and email are commonplace, having replaced landline phones and snail mail. Also, the Act allotted more power for government to freeze and capture terrorist funds before they could be used to murder, including the prosecution of those who fund terrorist activities. .
             But after the shock and grief started to wear thin, and my rational began to slowly regenerate, I began to get a different sense of the Patriot Act. I started to hear things I never thought I would hear in America. After some investigating, I found some American citizens being detained indefinitely under the Patriot Act, all without legal counsel and being charged a single crime, which without our constitution, would be legal. But we do have a constitution, and the President has sworn to uphold it. So why was the Patriot Act legislated under the president's nose, if there are unconstitutional provisions? Why was the act quickly enacted, without any congressional debate, let alone complete analysis by congress? Why were congressmen who questioned the Patriot Act, labeled and deemed anti-American by the Bush Administration, as many Congressmen have come forwarded to say? .