Too many have dyed the American soil red for us to wash away all of the sacrifices and principles that bare the liberties and freedoms enjoyed since our independence.

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Although only 24 months have passed since the fall of the World Trade Center, we, as Americans, have given away hundreds of years of protected rights so we can sleep better at night, blanketed by the idea that the federal government is working in the best interest of its people.

But every day, the government demonstrates that it works to serve itself.

In truth, lawmakers have done little to relieve growing fears of their constituents.

Lawmakers argue they were helping this nation by passing the USA Patriot Act, which was supposed to be instrumental in Bush's fight against terrorism on U.S. soil, but the measure, passed in October 2001, has done nothing more than invade Americans' privacies and provide the presidential administration a seemingly open checkbook and right to fight wherever and whenever.

And politicians have been able to do so without much disagreement from the American people, who willingly forfeit their rights for the hope of better security of our borders.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

When planes crashed into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and a fourth in Pennsylvania, terrorists accomplished much - the installation of fear in our country.

Sept. 10, 2001, was the last day of normalcy in the United States.

After Sept. 11, Americans were panicking in reaction to a real threat to their security and were anxious to grasp any way of restoring their sense of security that had been lost.

As part of that attempt, the United States began frantically putting up walls of policy to protect itself not realizing in the meantime it was creating a jail within those walls.

The Patriot Act was the foundation of these walls.

And while the threat of terrorism is still real, there is a greater threat to our civil liberties.

The walls are growing, casting a dark shadow of fear and insecurity - leaving little room for a beacon of hope to shine through.

This shadow is keeping Americans in the dark about what could happen if we allow the government to keep our questions unanswered and allow us to give up crucial freedoms.

Too much of the work done by governmental agencies has been done through the drafting of classified documents.

And the penalization of alleged terrorists has been done without much of the public eye - maybe justice truly is blind.

The Bush administration is trying to give Americans amnesia.

It wants us to forget that this country was built upon having the freedom to say what we want and believe what we want but also the ability to keep some secrets to ourselves.

Americans are slowly forgetting that although we had these freedoms, we were still comfortable.

And now, according to a survey conducted by the MSU Office for Survey Research, only 43 percent of Americans want to keep those freedoms.

The amnesia is setting in.

Just as quickly as events in history became nothing more than a Jeopardy! question, Americans forget the government still has not found the "weapons of mass destruction" that Bush has been babbling about for almost a year now.

It's unbelievable so many citizens are willing to give up their civil liberties to an unintelligent government.

The thought of giving up our freedom should be scarier than any plane crashing into any building. The events of Sept. 11 were, indeed, tragic. The images remain in our minds.

But after the events of Sept. 11, everyone should have realized at least a few things:

America's foreign policy is not perfect.

Had the policy on relations with other countries been more just, thousands of people would not have died on that day in the first place.

The United States also cannot be the world's keeper.

There is turmoil in other countries besides Iraq.

Besides, on the surface, it looks as if Bush is trying to combat terrorism in the war-torn Middle East, but there is no secret that beneath the dry desert sand is a river of oil.

The right to be scared is a given, but being too cautious is not healthy.

After Sept. 11, people live their lives differently.

Somewhere in this changed way of living, people have forgotten their priorities.

Americans should be able to trust their ruling body to make the right decisions but not trust the government when it sets out guidelines on how to live a normal lifestyle.

They also should trust the government to prepare for disaster but not to be overly prepared.

Remember those who died so that we could enjoy the fresh breath of liberty - the patriots in the our revolution, the soldiers in the Civil War and the many who lost their lives on Sept. 11.

Though many days live in infamy, we should not forget those days we lived in between.