Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times Contact: http://www.latimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248 Author: Kent Van Cleave COST OF TERROR TO A FREE SOCIETY Tuesday's horrendous events have produced immediate devastation unprecedented in our short history of domestic terrorism. Tens of thousands of lives may have been snuffed out. As hard as it may be to contemplate, these losses were probably not the primary goal of the terrorists. More likely they were merely bloody stepping stones along which to prod the U.S. toward becoming, irretrievably, a police state. Those who truly hate America will be most interested in watching our government pull the plug on our Bill of Rights--already in critical condition as "collateral damage" in the war on drugs and the war for votes. The sweetest revenge against America will be watching the "land of the free and the home of the brave" become, by our own hand, the "land of papers, please, and the home of staying home." Kent Van Cleave Bedford, Ind. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake