I'm tired of people telling me to be frightened. I've lived in this country for thirty years. Until after September 11, 2001, only Olly North, a despicable fascist running guns out of President Reagan's basement, tried to tell us to be frightened.

But since September 11, 2001, it seems as if all of our leaders have suddenly discovered that frightening Americans is a Good Idea. At first there were only a few tentative steps. Mostly President Bush wanted to act presidential, which he did in the traditional fashion by declaring war on something or other. But then came the push to frighten us.

It started by sending the vice president into hiding. Then they dropped hints about a shadow government. They periodically announced that the terrorists might be ready to strike, Real Soon Now. They made a show of blaming the anthrax terrorist on Al Qaeda, even though he sent letters only to the media and to Democrats.

Why would our leaders do all of that?

It quickly became clear, as they began to tear away at the foundations of our country's freedoms. In order to be safe, we were told, we had to give up a little freedom. To be sure, it's becoming harder to be safe with every passing day. Better give up your freedoms in a hurry!

John Ashcroft, posing as President Bush's version of Hitler's Joseph Goebbles, made it clear when he told us, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists. They erode out national unity and diminish our resolve."

We were told that we would lose no freedoms, that the new powers that President Bush would arrogate himself would be applied only to foreign terrorists. At that time it was already a patent lie, as John Walker Lindt was held in a military brig, treated as an "enemy combatant." So much for the promises. Since then at least fourteen more American citizens have been accused of terrorism. We can't be sure that that is the sum total of the victims of Ashcroft's new McCarthyism, since Ashcroft has refused to publish the identities of the hundreds that he's already caught up in his dragnet. We're told that most of them are being held on charges of violating immigration laws. What, with millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico we're going to worry about a few hundred illegal immigrants from the Middle East? Who is Ashcroft trying to kid?

In any case, fear has become a useful tool for this administration. Every few days we find out what the new terror threat color is. But never mind the color, if it's orange or red or puce: the real color is clearly a yellow stripe that this administration wants to paint on our national belly.

Here's the secret. We've lived with danger all our lives. September 11, 2001 did not change everything. That's heresy with this administration, of course, but it's a fact. Few people are aware that Clinton's administration was already feverishly trying to track down Osama bin Laden and prevent him from attacking us on our soil. Bin Laden had already attacked Americans twice before. And bin Laden hadn't been the first. He wasn't even the first to attack the World Trade Centers, as we all recall the events from eight and a half years earlier, when Islamic terrorists exploded a carbomb in the World Trade Center's parking garage.

But suddenly we are afraid. We seem paralyzed. You'd think that good leaders would attempt to energize us, to make us feel capable of dealing with these events. But that doesn't suit this administration. People who are afraid can be controlled. You practically don't have to threaten them directly. Hitler knew this. Stalin knew this. Saddam Hussein knows it. And President Bush quite evidently knows it, too.

See what this fear has done to us. We've spent billions on beefing up airport security, without being one whit safer. And who in their right mind believes that another highjacking like those of September 11, 2001 could ever happen again, anyway? Anyone so much as makes one wrong move, and they are taken to the ground by the other passengers faster than you can say "duck duck!" This has happened twice, now. Suddenly airline flight, which was plagued by an epidemic of "air rage," is as polite as a bridge club.

A sniper shows up in Virginia. Nine people are tragically murdered. Instead of cooperating to catch the maniac, our various law enforcement arms do a creditable keystone kops routine, as they fixate on bad clues, ignore good clues, and generally get in each other's way. Meanwhile the people living there are afraid, and everything is done to make their fear as paralyzing as possible. The sniper was killing a lot of people, sure, but the chances for any one resident of the area to get killed were less than 1 in a million. In fact, by convincing people to be afraid, authorities gave the sniper fewer targets, and increased the risk to those who could not stay indoors, huddled in front of the television to hear the latest tidbits rationed out by chief Moose.

What finally caught the snipers? A trucker, who heard news reports of the sniper's car's description, released against the wishes of law enforcement authorities. This trucker, a true American, called the police with the information, and then worked with others at the scene to block the suspect vehicle from escaping, while police took all of two hours to get there. Happily, the snipers were fast asleep, oblivious to their doom.

What lessons do we draw from this?

It clearly isn't Ashcroft's lesson, that Big Brother knows best, and that we should just sit back and let him take care of us. If it had been up to Big Brother, we'd still be chasing a phantom white van across Maryland and Virginia.

No, this is the lesson:

Americans are strong, resourceful, and free. We don't need to be afraid. There is no reason for us to be afraid. There was no reason for it before September 11, 2001, and there is no reason for it now. Further, when we're told all of the information, instead of being spoonfed what the authorities want us to know, then we accomplish what needs to be done. We can do it better than all of the government agencies put together. We can do it without sacrificing the Bill of Rights.

Perhaps, even though history informs us that he never actually said it, Patrick Henry's famous words still hold true today. I'm tired of people telling me to live in fear, and I think most other Americans are, too. "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"