NSA Wiretaps Revisited

Editor note: The following is a response to January 30th post to the Soul Theory blog, unfortunately it would not let me post the comment in the new beta version of blogger. And, since I had such a writer’s moment I could not waste it to the ether. My response is to his commentary regard the NSA wiretaps….

The issue is not, whether or not "they" are listening in, but shifting of the government view of its people from "you are innocent 'unless' proven guilty" to the "citizenry is guilty 'until' your proven innocent." This shifts the power away from the people to the government saying "'trust us' we know what we are doing...."

History has shown us that when governments are left unchecked abuse of power, authority, and oppression soon follow. Did we not learn the lessons of communism: see the example of the Soviet Union, China, and Vietnam as those nations combined "disappeared" or killed well over 30 million deaths for simply having a different opinion. The last two in the list, "re-educated you" for having a brain and being educated.

Some claim that could never happen here, but fascism in the thirties did not happen in a vacuum it happened because persons were fearful and handed over power to their governments, because "it" knew best.

"A journey begins with a single step," is oft quoted, beginning a journey with our government that says "trust us" blindly will lead us, the people, into authoritarian state. And, before anyone assumes that I am assuming that I mean only the Bush administration, I also mean any administration that follows this one--democrats, greenies, or even libertarians. Government does not give back power unless the people keep it in check.

Moreover with the "War on Terror" being so nebulous of who is the enemy, and with an ending not able to be defined this gives government the ability to create constant fear.

And when persons are fearful they tend to let their options be limited. Fear makes one small. With all that said, I believe that government should be able to monitor communication BUT with warrants in place so we can MONITOR their intent and direction of their investigations.

We have already have presidents abuse this power already, FDR and Richard Nixon are two prime examples--so I say to you, let's not simply surrender to fear, but instead use pragmatism, rationality, and reason to keep our government in check even when it seems the darkest.