Introduction
This unit surveys United States History with special emphasis on the recurrent struggle to balance our precious civil liberties with the security needs of the nation. My unit draws on lessons of personal experience.
When I was a boy, I had a teacher that tried to spark in me an interest for school, something I had long lost. He asked me what I really found interesting. I told him that I liked to learn about governments around the world, that I did not understand why there were different governments in the world and why they were always fighting with each other. I remember that he was taken aback as I had not ever really acted interested in anything outside of recess. I also remember that I was taken aback as I never had a teacher that I felt really cared what "I" thought was interesting. That moment really shaped my teaching and the way I interact with students. The teacher gave me a college textbook dealing with communism. I was fascinated with the ideas contained in the book. I read it with enthusiasm. This was also the first time in a long time that someone really gave me something that would really challenge me.
One part of the book discussed how Marxist revolutionaries would use attacks aimed at governments they opposed to force the governments to suppress their citizens, restricting their rights for their protection. When governments responded in this manner, people were often resentful at their loss of freedoms. This in turn prompted the people to look outside their governments and to the Marxist revolutionaries. This is exactly what the Revolutionaries wanted. It was so beautiful the way their actions were beneficial to them twofold:
- They drove a wedge between the government and the people.
- They pushed the people closer to the revolutionaries.
Another event that dramatically affected me occurred when I was living in China. Daily I would walk across the campus I was teaching at to get my mail. I remember the first time I got my mail from my girlfriend, only to find out that it had been opened. I was surprised and shocked to find it that way. I thought maybe my girlfriend forgot to put something in the letter, reopened it and then sealed it back up. But then I saw that it had been sloppily glued shut. I knew my girlfriend would have either taped it neatly shut or simply replaced the envelope. When it occurred to me that the Chinese government was opening my mail I was irate. This anger turned to feeling violated, then that was followed by fear. I was worried that if someone would open and read my mail, it was very possible they would violate my privacy further. I had never felt fear like this before, especially in relation to a powerful body like the government.
Before I traveled to China I heard accounts of people's privacy being violated by incidents like getting their mail read and their rooms searched. This really did not have an affect on me until it happened to me. Then it occurred to me that I did not have any right to privacy. I was outside of the United States and therefore I had no right to expect the same liberties that I enjoyed at home.
The last event that has shaped me in regard to this lesson was when I visited Ground Zero in New York City. I knew I would be moved by the magnitude of what occurred there, but I had no idea that I would be moved to such an extent. I was met with a cacophony of emotions. As I stood looking at this vast field of ruin, I felt incredible and strong feelings. First, I felt sadness for all the pain and hurt that was visited at this place. This was followed up by anger directed towards the misguided souls that were responsible for this tragedy. I then felt pity as I was sad for these men that committed this heinous act. The emotion that followed was pride for the heroes that risked their lives to save others. Then came love, I felt love for mankind, and for our country that in the face of hatred and misguided zeal we can move on. Lastly, I was moved to distress and confusion. The lives we lived pre-9/11 are gone forever. Where are we now headed?
After a short time there I was physically and emotionally drained. Through all of my travels I have never knowingly been to a place where there have been so many lives lost. And to know that these were innocent lives. People who were going to work, shopping, or simply sightseeing found themselves struggling for their very existence. This one act was the impetus that set our country on the path which we now travel. Again I am forced to ask, where are we going? Will we find better ways to protect the lives of our citizens and visitors? Will we have to give up liberties in the process, perhaps stirring resentment against our government?
This unit is, I believe, filled with the promise of enhancing student interest and teaching them some important lessons. By nature, this topic is contemporary, and what excites me is this unit's lessons promise to deal specifically with an issue throughout America's history. I view myself applying the material from this curriculum unit all year long, in many contexts. It could become a common thread that unites the entire curriculum for the year. I see it as the velvet rope onto which my class holds as we walk through the exhibits of our country's history. The rope can start as far back as the first Adams administration, with the Alien and Sedition Acts. I see United States history, from the 18th century to the 21st, joined by a common theme: the struggle to balance our precious civil liberties (the essence of our society) with the security needs and survival of our nation (the necessary condition for those liberties to exist).
I will endeavor to get my students to learn and understand the freedoms, rights and liberties they have been given by the Constitution. I also will strive to get them to feel first hand how the loss of these liberties might affect them. I will show them how our government often deals with an external threat by restricting our freedoms and how this is done for our safety and protection (and for the government's own preservation).
I believe that very few of my students really know their constitutional rights and, furthermore, that they do not understand their government's reaction to external threats that are now occurring or that have occurred throughout our history. They need to know the nature of government, what government's role in our society is, why government acts to reduce or remove civil liberties in certain circumstances, what has happened historically in our country as a result, what is happening now in regard to national security and civil liberties, and what should happen in the future. It is critical that they know and have an appreciation of their rights and freedoms so they will not take them lightly and will recognize threats to them.
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