Freedoms

Garrett Lambur
One of the best films that has recently come out is the new batman movie The Dark Knight. The characters are developed incredibly well in the movie, the special effects are great, and the actors were excellent. Heath Ledger gave perhaps one of the best performances in a film that I have ever seen. What I think ties this film to what our class has been discussing is that it is controversial, the best discussions we have had have come over controversial topics, example the death penalty. Batman introduces some great controversial ideas in the film. Look at his giant cell phone radar map generator. This can be seen as simply a very cool gadget or as a comparison to the US government under the Patriot Act. How much of our personal freedoms do we dare give up in order to protect ourselves? The further that we ignore the Constitution to protect ourselves the further we travel from actually being the United States of America. Encompassed within that piece of paper are the ideas that fabricate our country. Once you begin to ignore those ideas then what is left to separate us from anyone else, our money, our things? Some would cynically make a response our lives but there comes a point where living without such ideas is not living at all. Look at Dr. Kabat, he put everything on the line to help to bring the end of Communism in the Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia. Though it is a slippery slope to draw such a parallel that our progression as a state is somewhat towards Communism, there are parallels between both. In the communist state you could be watched for no reason at all, you could be arrested with no charges being pressed, and just disappear. To some degree this is happening within the United States today, though it is not as drastic, you can no be arrested and held without any charges being pressed, a right that is established within the Constitution. I realize that many will die for religion and would not put the freedoms guaranteed to us in the Constitution on the same level but you have to recognize that without the Constitution you would not be able to practice your own religion peacefully. There is a line that must be drawn in protecting the lives of the citizens of this country where more may not be possible because it crosses a line that no longer allows us to separate ourselves from anybody else, especially the attacker. I realize that this is far from the topic of a movie but I feel it is a good example of how a movie can spur good discussion and it is something that I feel strongly about.