The reason that this gets into a political football match is that people keep making all discussions into debates over "either/or." Either we have wiretaps or we have terrorists. Either we have liberty or we have security.

What if we have a "both/and" scenerio? We can have both liberty and security, but we may have to look at things differently. I agree that illegal searches and whatnot have been around for a very long time. It doesn't mean we shouldn't protest each and every time we hear about it and hold up a greater ideal.

Perhaps if we begin with a values and needs discussion prior to deciding what to do, we could actually come to a consensus regarding what we believe is the best thing to do from where we are right now. The constitution was actually written that way -- a discussion of needs and values.

So in this case, the value is every American citizen's right to privacy. The need is safety -- a very basic need in our lives. How do we balance the two? What about organizations and corporations? What ideas do we have for privacy in groups?

Personally, my balance is more towards privacy for individuals, less privacy for organizations, corporations and the like. With that comes a responsbility. I have a responsibility to know my neighbors. I have a responsibility to dig under a person's outward appearance and words and understand who they are and what they value before I decide they are to be feared.

We can have both privacy and safety -- it's very simple and it takes work.