Franklin's Famous Words Misused

Though many variations find their way into our conversations (especially since 9/11), Franklin once wrote in quotes in his notes for a proposition at the Pennsylvania Assembly, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

A paraphrased version inevitably pops up in virtually every conversation involving airport security crackdowns. I find this a misuse of the phrase. Often when it’s applied, the user is really complaining about inconvenience rather than poetically citing an unjust sacrifice of Essential Liberty.

When you strap on your seat belt, what Essential Liberty is being taken from you? Driving isn’t a right to begin with. You are still free to choose whether or not to buckle up or whether to drive in the first place. I say it’s an inconvenience worth the sacrifice.

What about Child-Proof caps and safety seals on meds? Is this a sacrifice of Essential Liberty or an inconvenience that saves lives from being taken by those with sinister minds?

Sure an all-out ban on guns would suit Franklin's terminology. But, when we talk about full-body scanners (The most recent heat applied to the topic of Airport Security), we talk about inconvenience not Essential Liberty. What freedom is one sacrificing to wait an extra hour to board a trans-Atlantic flight? How much time would it have taken Franklin to cross an ocean? I fear he would not sympathize for or empathize with those using his immortal phrase to justify disdain for inconvenience.