Are the fourth amendment rights of citizens of the United States of America being violated by the government's collection of telephone records, emails and internet usage? Seems the answer is a qualified maybe. If they are simply looking for patterns of calls and emails. Use of sites on the internet associated with terrorist sites or bomb making information then it seems that most Americans feel their rights are not being violated. In this case I return to my buddy George.
Have we become so fearful of a terrorist attack that we are willing to sacrifice our fundamental freedoms to have some security? It seems to be the case. Do we pay a little extra attention when we are in line to get in an airplane and we hear someone named Abdul speaking in Arabic? Do we object to profiling while we practice it daily in our lives? Profiling is okay as long as I'm not being profiled. Is that the America we live in now? Freedom traded for security? Situational morality? One guy tries to bomb an airplane with a device in his shoes and now we all have to take our shoes off prior to boarding an airplane. Since the underwear bombing attempt I have decided if I fly again I will go commando. Perhaps that was too much information.
What surprises me on a daily basis with the current Edward Snowden statements is the relative silence of those who have been screaming about their second amendment rights. The argument was that we should not have universal background checks because it might lead to gun registry and a national database of guns and gun owners. The same folks seem to be unaffected by the revelation that the federal government has a giant database of telephone records, email and internet usage on everyone who utilizes those technologies. So, my second amendment rights are sacred but a warrantless search, denying me the right to confront my accuser, not incriminate myself, have an attorney and be imprisoned indefinitely without charges are all okay because it protects me from terrorist attacks? This is not the America I grew up in. I know that America had its problems too. Segregation, voting rights violations, Watergate, but we never seemed to be willing to give up our rights to feel safer. Life is dangerous folks. Someday you will die. Something unfortunate will happen and in an instant you will be gone. I want to be free until then. Rights, like George Carlin once said aren't rights when someone can take them away. They are privileges. The question isn't being asked the right way. Many are asking if the collection of these records is legal. The Congress has passed laws which allow this activity to occur as the Speaker of the House has stated over the last few days. I don't question its legality I question its necessity and morality. So for me being hated by terrorists and attacked for our freedoms is a risk I am willing to take. At least in that case I will have died a free man. The way we are headed the terrorists won't have a reason to hate us because we will have sacrificed our freedoms on the altar of security.
So, think, read, question, decide on freedom or bondage. Take a risk and die happy and free.
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