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Community Corner

Rochester Reflects on 9/11: Struggle To Balance Safety, Liberty Will Define Us

Oakland University security expert sees 'serious threats to individual liberty.'

Memories of Sept. 11, 2001 are widely shared, but also personally distinct. So are reflections on the enduring impact of that life-altering day a decade ago.

Rochester Patch this week presents diverse perspectives from this area.

'We are still confronted with challenges'

James Marcinkowski
Oakland University security expert

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     Ten years after the tragic loss of so many innocent lives on 9/11, we are still being confronted with fundamental challenges to what it means – and what it will take – to protect America's health, safety and welfare.  Along with stunning military successes came serious threats to individual liberty, raising fundamental questions yet to be resolved.

     Terrorism will define military warfare in this century, just as the tank did in the last one. The greatest immediate threat to our country may not come from nations with large military forces. Small, non-state actors with a relentless determination, using the double-edged sword of modern technology, present the clear and present danger.

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     But confronting this 21st century threat requires reacquainting ourselves with some basic constitutional principles. The struggle to affirm the historic balance between public safety and liberty will take time. How we decide may be the defining characteristic of this generation of Americans.

James Marcinkowski of Lake Orion, a Metro Detroit security consultant and adjunct instructor at in Rochester, has worked for the FBI, CIA and Naval Intelligence Operations. He is a former deputy city attorney for Royal Oak and a former administrative attorney in county prosecutor's office.

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