(Disclaimer to NSA since I did include the word "explosion" in this article: I am not a terrorist. I am just a college girl, eating Oreo's and doing Government homework. Please do not read my text messages, otherwise you might be scared from my ultimate weirdness. Thank you.)
Unless you have been hiding underneath a decent sized boulder the past few months, you are probably aware of the recent reports of the NSA. The NSA (National Security Agency) performs highly specialized data activities in order to protect the United States from any threats of terrorism and all of the country's information systems.
Recently, the NSA has been under heavy scrutiny for invading the rights of U.S. citizens. I'm sure that most of you know about Edward Snowden, the former CIA/NSA employee who leaked a few NSA procedures to "The Guardian." He enlightened us that not only does the government has more access to our personal information than we are led to believe, but there are millions of collected data files collected of our phone calls and any online communication. This has caused quite the uproar across America. (Imagine how many closet porn maniacs are emotionally scarred.)
This article is important because it reminds us that we have had our rights invoked on since way before the mainstream scandal broke out. It gives examples of times that special intelligence agencies have performed unwarranted tracking and searches and emphasizes the importance of demanding that Congress act out against allowing invasion of our privacy.
We have received a appreciable amount of support from foreign countries condemning the acts of the NSA. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff commented on the recent misconduct of the country stating "Without the right of privacy, there is no real freedom of speech or freedom of opinion, and so there is no actual democracy." The European Union, which has solidified data protection laws, has considered re-examining and putting boundaries up on the data that they give the U.S. access to. Their point is sound....Why should they trust this country if its own citizens can't?
With the explosion of technology in the last two decades, it seems to be obvious that our very government would consider crossing the line and monitoring what we Google search and what we chat about on Facebook. But we do these unimportant/nonterrorist things on a daily basis feeling that we have a hefty Constitution that allows us to say what we want to say and do what we want to do as long as we are not harming other people. The point of the government is to protect us and give our community a structured system that provides us safety and protection. But it's becoming more and more evident that they have gone beyond their control.
I always say that Nixon was a better president than Obama and every time I say it, I never fail to receive the same response. I either see gamma rays of hatred lasering from people's eyes or I get called an array of nice names, ranging from "psychologically damaged" to an "idiot." Or both. And each time, I know that 90% of these people formed their opinion the exact same way. When the average person hears "Nixon," they automatically cringe. Even if they honestly have no idea of one single detail that occurred during Nixon's presidency, they know that he did something really really bad and that he is U.S. History villain. They mimic the opinions of their parents and their teachers instead of taking the time to think for themselves. I am not justifying the actions of the Watergate Scandal in any way, but I do know this: Nixon embraced impeachment, eventually resigned his presidency, and became permanently known as a huge tool for doing something similar to what the NSA is doing to everyday John-and-Jane citizens today. I think he just got caught doing something that almost all powerful officials do: playing dirty.
So why is it suddenly acceptable to cross the line? Why was the invasion of privacy a seismic outrage then but not now? We should demand that the fine folks of congress put a stop to this nonsense so that we can invest some trust into our government once again and feel certain that we really are the free country that we so proudly advertise ourselves to be.
