If you’ve done nothing wrong, then you’ve got nothing to hide.

Wrong. Nothing ever justifies giving up your human rights , especially to prove lack of wrong doing, and any government that asks you to do so is not your friend.

Terrorism has become a weapon used against us by those elected to lead to keep us compliant, like blinders you’d put on a horse. The threat just keeps growing and growing instead diminishing, despite the money and lives we throw at it. Terrorism is the new Communism, and the NSA PRISM program and the Patriot Act are the modern day overreactions equivalent to McCarthyism and the Red Scare.

A captain and crew of a boat would reflect upon the current state of their vessel and make corrections. The cycle of reflection and correction is what keeps the boat from running ashore, hitting other boats, or making other costly mistakes. Unfortunately, I feel that NSA, enabled by section 215 of the Patriot Act, have become so powerful that they feel they don’t need to reflect upon their actions anymore.

If your neighbor was peeking in your window at night, that would probably make you very angry, and you would probably never trust that neighbor again. Think about how all of our fellow countries feel about us right now. It’s really unfortunate that Germany and our allies now severely distrust us. I apologize to all non US citizens that my government doesn’t respect you enough to extend the human right to privacy to you, as it supposedly does to its own citizens, and I’m ashamed I have to apologize on behalf of them. It’s troubling that the NSA has trouble telling the truth. It’s awesome but ultimately embarrassing that Ecuador offers to fund Human Rights training to us.

It’s hypocritical that we frown upon countries like China spying on their citizens, like the East German Stasi, and yet we are doing it to our own people! While this administration may try its best to be benevolent with this power, who’s to say all future administrations will use it for good? Even without content you can glean an awful (unacceptable) amount of information about somebody.

So how did we get here? The justification I keep hearing is that this is all legal. Regardless of whether or not something is legal, we should be asking ourselves “but is this right?” and “what were the motivations of those that created this law? Was it to entrench the privileged or represent the constituents?” Good people not standing up for the right thing is what got us here. Good people not standing up at the Tech companies accused of handing over data to the NSA. Good people at the NSA not speaking out about their surveillance programs. Good people in Congress not speaking out about programs they’ve been briefed on. Everyone just keeps saying how they’re just complying with the law while looking the other way. Sounds to me like the crew hasn’t been doing enough reflection. What about the captain?

I think it’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience.

Hearing the President of our country say that, the incompetent media’s focus on Snowden, and the American people’s fundamental misunderstand of privacy, literally reminds me of the part in Star Wars where in order to stop a growing threat and protect the people, a democracy is turned into an authoritarian empire.

So this is how liberty dies…with thunderous applause?

Not on my watch. And not on yours either. Join us this 4th of July for a peaceful rally against infringements on our 4th Amendment rights as part of the national Restore the Fourth movement. Let’s ask the NSA to go back to the drawing board and find a way to uncompromisingly provide security and privacy.