...do we reduce driving under the influence? Random security checkpoints along the road is thought to be an effective deterrent. It's also thought to be an unreasonable search. I could live with it. But the new airport restrictions that are cripling our airlines industry are more akin to combatting DWI by placing weight restrictions on what you can carry in the trunk of your car.

These hijackers didn't storm the airport with M-16s. They bought tickets and got on the planes as normal passengers. They used box knives to threaten others on the plane. They could just as easily have used a piece of twine around a flight attendant's neck to hold her hostage and coerce others to do their bidding. Just exactly how does preventing people from parking at the parking garage at my local airport help? How does confiscating nail clippers or knitting needles help? A ball point pen is as formidable a weapon as a knitting needle. How about if we ban carry on luggage and all fly naked?

I don't know about eliminating the door to the cockpit either. What if the pilot suffers a heart attack? I've heard stories of a passenger landing a plane safely in an emergency.

I'm not suggesting we don't take reasonable security precautions. But while you're busy giving up freedoms to try to make the world a safe place, the terrorists are busy thinking up new ways to attack us. I don't know what the answers are. The only thing that can possibly work against people willing to blow themselves up for a cause is to eliminate those people from the face of the earth. I don't know that we can do that. I fully support that we should try.

The one thing we can do at home to combat terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. That's a damn hard thing to do. We simply must go about our lives being free Americans, upholding our beliefs against all odds. The terrorists may be capable of destroying the world. We must not allow them to destroy our spirit.