Fluttering Carefully

I am sorry for those who have lost loved ones in the tragedy in Virginia. I am blessed to have no relations (that I know of) that have been involved in that tragedy at Virginia Tech this week.

In the wake of those harrowing events at the VT campus this week, there is concern over campus security, and ensuring the safety of students. There are three basic problems with that:

• Its focus is too narrow.
• It is quite likely unconstitutional.
• It is cost-ineffective (for now).

I think it is shortsighted to say that we need to take better care to secure students throughout the land. We are often only concerned with our own personal circumstances and callings. Consider, there is nothing that kept that from happening to people in the World Trade Center, a Colorado High School, an Oklahoma Federal Building or an Oklahoma Post Office. All people need to be protected: subway and airplane passengers, soldiers (from fellow soldiers), children from parents, and vice versa. What state can prevent all of that? I know of none. However, if we are interested in safety, we must consider all venues, not only the one from which we are reeling.

The second problem is that the protection that would be required by some would be entirely unconstitutional, consider the fourth amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Circumstances like these are generally improbable, so how would you protect yourself against them? If we undermine the constitution, we live in an arbitrary state, at the mercy of our newfound dictator. If we continue down this course we live a life like all have lived in times past, one that has uncertainty and fear. This is not new. The state cannot protect us from that in the end.

I believe there could easily come a point where we would have such a state where it would be possible for the government to so easily monitor our behavior through the use of video surveillance and RFID that we could be secure in a way that would assuage the fears of most Americans. But we would not be able to do the most sensitive things without our Big Brother knowing what is going on. There would no longer be wire taps, there would be an open phone system, that is constantly being passed through a governmental audio algorithm. All corners monitored by cameras, all corridors and all public school restrooms. However, one thing is forgotten here: monitoring is not protecting. In the end the state can only survey and hope to get there to limit the fallout. Security is freedom from danger, etc. When I lived at home, my dad used to say, “Son, I cannot make you do anything, I can only make you wish you had.” Likewise, the government cannot secure us they can only limit us and manage the aftermath. And every time more security measures are put in place, people overcome them, consider notorious hackers, they live to breach obstacles. Those men in the planes on 11 September 2001, Timothy McVey, Eric Klebold and Dylan Harris were all murderous engineers, devising the best way to maximize bloodshed.

Consider the following:

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? (Amos 3.6) Cf. similar passages.

Maybe we should be considering the source of safety and tragedy is the same, and repent before him, rather than railing against our god, the state.