Liberty over safety

Tyranny gains a foothold whenever enough people ask, “If you have nothing to hide, why should you care if I look?”

Letter writer Paul Heins paraphrased this sentiment with respect to police drones and surveillance cameras when he asks, “If your public behavior does not violate the law or impinge on the freedom of others, then what’s the worry?” [“Surveillance technology requires public scrutiny,” Northwest Voices, Feb. 11.]

Ben Franklin would have responded to this as he did in 1775 when he said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

--Rob Jones, Seattle