In the wake of scandal, news outlets are awaiting statements as the administration scrambles to explain the need for violating personal privacy in the collection of personal data from Verizon and online services. But in truth we need no explanation. we caught them doing exactly what we should suspect them to do, and now we should expect them to give us a BS response. Why force them to BS us?
Knowledge is power and without power, governments are ineffective. Their job is to continually reach for it, so it is to be expected for them to violate public privacy and reach for as much power as possible. It is up to the public to protect its own interests; in other words, it is up to private citizens to say no. Any other arrangement encourages the public to complacency.
To avoid complacency, we are wise to reject any explanations the administration provides. if we listen, we are communicating that there is an explanation possible, that some excuse might be sufficient, and it gives them the possibility of coming up with one. It means that we are just looking for the excuse to settle back down and let government do what it wants.
It is up to us to put pressure on our officials to enforce the Bill of Rights and protect the public from unconstitutional search and seizure, including personal information. It is not the government's responsibility to prevent government from becoming too large and powerful and overreaching its authority; it is the citizens' responsibility. Expecting government to behave itself on its own is encouraging them to misbehave and avoiding our own responsibilities.
It is important for us to take an active roll in communicating with our legislators. It is just as important to communicate with news outlets who report on government activities, as they are the ones who determine whether the government gets away with their abuses. Let them know what we expect, that we are not looking for excuses, that we are taking an active role and looking for solutions.
How do you propose that?
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is an excellent idea you have for people to take an active roll...but notice what may happen to those who use the media to report on government activities. Like Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden could find himself in Court after revealing that he is the one who exposed the Governments phone and internet surveillance programs to reporters.
ReplyDeleteEven small town governments are getting in on the act. Typical American Deric Lostutter is facing 10 years in prison for revealing to the media that dozens of people had witnessed a assault on a teenage girl by members of the Steubenville football team. The rapist got 1 and 2 year sentences.
Do you think we can change our laws? I hope so. In the meantime here is a way to communicate with news outlets. This link will only work once after you have installed and configured Tor for wiki leaks. It is suggested that if you cannot memorize it "you may wish to destroy the paper after you finish with it". http://suw74isz7wqzpmgu.onion/
You can also follow all the secrets with the new browser http://dazzlepod.com/cable/