Senators fight for a better law..

On November 17, six Senators wrote a letter telling their fellow Senate members that if changes were not made to the Patriot Act than they would not vote to renew the law. This law was passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, it is basically an antiterrorism law. The act has been the subject of furious debate over whether it strikes the right balance between national security and personal liberties. These Senators are listening to civil rights activists and Democrats that want to add onto the law more about what is alright for the FBI, and other organizations preventing terrorism, to do to stop it. Many of the protestors feel that their personal rights are not being considered enough.


Since the Patriot Act focused on antiterrorism I decided to look back into history to see what other steps America has made in the struggle for antiterrorism, and what I found was disturbing. Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, in the 1940s, America made a drastic decision, camps were made to hold all Japanese citizens within the United States. These camps were set up as a result of President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. These relocation camps were intended to remove all Japanese from America's way so that there would be no threat of an inside threat to America. One of these camps, Manzanar, held 10,046 internees at its height. Many of these retainees lost everything they owned. It was until April, 1976, that the Executive Order 9066 was finally removed by President Ford.