No, I don’t like it, and yes, I am more than mildly
concerned. However in the midst of all the bru-ha-ha about the NSA activities and
what they know or don’t know about us, quite frankly, I think that horse has
already left the barn. That horse trotted out of the barn in full view of all
Americans, celebrated and heralded greatly, in the guise of the post 9/11
Patriot Act. I’d be surprised, maybe even insulted, even if I didn’t have an
FBI file by now; bleeding heart activist that I am. I pretty much figure that
any communication anywhere, anytime, or by any medium other than face to face
conversation, is probably recorded and available to people I don’t know. Again,
I’m not saying I like it, I’m just saying it is so.
Privacy
is one of those rights that is unspecified in the Constitution, and thus is
often ambiguous in applying and interpreting the laws regarding what is and is
not sacred. The 4th amendment declares that U.S. citizens are to be
free from unreasonable search and seizure, which of course begs the question:
What is reasonable? In the face of fear, this reasonable standard is easily
manipulated; the Patriot Act a case in point.
I was
one of those people who were deeply concerned at the passage of the Patriot Act
and the manner in which so many Americans were willing to sacrifice their
freedoms, which have taken generations to improve toward a nebulous perfection,
at the altar of national security. Wasn’t it Ben Franklin, one of our smartest
and most respected founders, who warned us that a citizenry that is willing to
sacrifice freedom for safety will have neither, and deserves neither? My leftist
friends and I just shook our heads.
I
recall an incident some years ago, at the end of the Bush administration and
several years after the Patriot Act was enacted, I was visited by a very dear
friend of mine from out of state. He and his teenage daughter were checking out
local colleges at the time, and they stayed with us for a night or two. I had
given him a key to the house, which he forgot to return before their departure.
He mailed it back to me a few days later.
Now
my friend is a writer, and a liberal one at that, who lives in a very
conservative area of the country. He chooses to live and write there because he
feels needed in that community. It also makes him a target. He is on some kinda
list somewhere for sure. Every time he, or his wife and daughter, fly anywhere,
they are searched and singled out for special and heightened scrutiny. Every
time. And when my key arrived in the mail to my home, the envelope encasing it
had been opened and taped back shut. It doesn’t take much critical thinking to
connect the dots here. Somebody messed with that envelope because they wanted
to know what was inside.
Can
I prove it? No, of course not. Might it have been opened accidentally; just
coincidently? It’s possible, sure, but what do the facts suggest? I never
complained or did anything about it because who would listen? Who would care?
At a time when people are practically willing to subject themselves to rectal
exams just to get on an airplane, what’s a girl to do? Add another note to my
FBI file?
My
point is that, like many of the problems we face today, we created this monster
when we hardly made a peep at the time when it was all going down. We, the
people, tend to overreact to problems, forcing remedies that much of the time
exacerbate, rather than solve those problems. I remember watching our Congress
give the Bush administration everything it asked for after 9/11 without so much
as a debate. Whether it was appropriating $20 billion here and there, and
authorizing mostly unwarranted invasions into American homes and conversations,
we were pretty much of one voice, confusing the emotions of fear, trauma and compassion
with responsible governing.
We
did this to ourselves. Wake up, America! Once these rights start getting
whittled down, it is really, really hard to get them back. It’s not too late, but
it’s time to fish or cut bait, i.e., let your voice be heard now, or you may be
invited by your government to forever hold your peace.
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