In America, we have learned to fear the unknown. The unforeseen terror threat, the man next to you on the airplane that speaks an unfamiliar dialect of English or the woman who walks with her head covered not knowing that she is oppressed. We fear and rightly so, another 9/11. Entrenched in that fear, we have overlooked the impact that this fear has on democratic society.

Desperately looking for a way to maintain security, we have allowed our government to make laws that infringe upon the rights of the foreign-born. We have embraced a vivid reflection of reality in which everything revolves around our vulnerability and the strength of our "enemy." Yes, we have allowed ourselves to devalue the foundation of American democracy to shadow our fear of the unknown.

While we take precaution when the security threat is orange or red and while we give in to the power of our leaders to make our decisions for us, our democracy is threatened. Not by the forces of outside foes who envy us for what we have, but by our own complacency to downgrade the importance of our rights for the sake of our security.

Recently, a study conducted by University of Connecticut researchers on awareness of the First Amendment in American high schools found that students are gravely unaware of their First Amendment rights, and more so, they undermine their need within American society. Interestingly, among its findings, the study notes that over 75 percent of students surveyed stated that they do not know their First Amendment rights and feel that they take it for granted and a third felt that "the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees."

These high school students constitute our future citizenry and having misconceptions about their own rights means that they will be unable to distinguish between legitimate government conduct and an infringement on rights.

We advance to the causes of other nations so as to "liberate" them and under the banner of "spreading democracy," we are willing to send our armed forces into danger. But are we for the sake of democracy at home willing to fight a battle? Benjamin Franklin once said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Is that where we are headed?

The complete study can be found at http://www.knightfdn.org/.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 8 2005.