WHAT’S YOUR POSITION?
As I write this column, the news about Edward Snowden is ALL over every news channel in the country. Not to mention every talk show host has changed its programming for the day to solicit answers to the $64 question: Do YOU believe what Snowden did is dangerous to our country and should be labeled a traitor or do you believe what Snowden did is virtuous and he’s standing for the rights of millions of Americans as well as billions of others across the world?
Why is the question important? Well, according to certain “polls” taken recently 56 percent of Americans have “no problem” with the National Security Administration (NSA) spying on every American by collecting data on each and every phone call, tweet, email and Facebook entry. However, many (me included) have serious doubts about the credibility of this and other “polls” taken. Especially when the poll taken was only hours after the breaking news of the leaks. Consider the average person’s daily schedule in most “average” American cities and towns, where most work on average six to eight hours a day. We exit our work sites, get in our cars and, depending on what age group one might belong to, we turn on the radio to hear snags and bits of what happened during the day or, as I would do if I was still a 20-something, turn on my music.
I’m sure the poll people interviewed many legitimate news followers and somehow surmised the percentages they arrived at. However, take your own poll. I’ll bet yours is just as accurate as any given by Gallop or NBC. The point is, I truly question the supposed 56 percent who agree that Edward Snowden is a traitor. Why? Well, think about it for a minute.
Do you believe anyone in Minnesota or North Dakota, for example, who think it’s perfectly fine to tell the federal government to take a flying leap and keep its hands off —completely off — prohibiting every citizen the right to own and carry a gun, yet also find it fine and dandy for NSA or the CIA or any other federal agency to have immediate access to our personal phone calls and all other cyber correspondence? I find that highly doubtful. Starting with me.
No, I do not believe the government, any government agency, be it local, state or federal, should have carte blanche to peer into my emails or listen to my phone calls. Granted, there are some who may find me a major pain and don’t appreciate my criticisms of how they handle things, but even they wouldn’t agree to spying on me by collecting information without a warrant. Nor should they — and that is exactly what any government agency should have to do if it wants to find out about you or me. They should be required togetk a warrant for the data they are seeking from my cell phone company or email server. They should not now or ever be able to simply “gather” data and information because they have the ability to do so. The only person who would or should ever have that ability is the parent of any teenager living under their roof. But, that’s a whole different column.
Before anyone truly makes up their mind about this whole “Snowden: traitor or hero” issue, consider what Daniel Ellsberg did when he broke into the Pentagon and stole documents from the earliest part of the Vietnam war that showed and proved to the American public that the United States knew, from the early stages of sending our troops over into Asia, that Vietnam was NOT a “winnable” war. Many thought he was a traitor, too. Yet once this knowledge was released to the public, attitudes about why we were there and the thousands of young men who never returned home for naught changed overnight. Like Ellsberg, Snowden released information to the public, revealing very questionable activities carried out by some of the most powerful and highest-ranking agencies of our government. The activity of collecting data about millions of Americans without their permission derived from personal and PRIVATE emails and phone calls that most certainly could be “targeted” at any point in time — now or in the future — is not the America I grew up believing in or that I support today.
TURN ABOUT IS FAIR QUESTIONING
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is often quoted saying, “If you don’t have anything to hide then you shouldn’t mind.” Let’s turn that phrase back on to General Keith Alexander, NSA director, who denied 14 separate times that the NSA has the capability to intercept emails or other cyber on-line communications. Quite obviously, he lied. And to James Clapper, director of National Intelligence (appointed by Obama in 2010), who was asked by an Oregon senator during a recent Senate Hearing about other squirrely activities within our Intelligence Agencies: “Does the NSA collect data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s response was “No sir. Not wittingly.” Clapper also lied.
Now I am asking, in the same clever-witted vein as our snake-in-the-grass, twice-elected Vice President Cheney: “If the our government has nothing to hide, why lie about its data-collecting capabilities on MILLIONS OF UNINFORMED AMERICANS?”
What about President Obama and his defense of the heads of our secret agencies doing what they believed is in the best interest of America’s defense against acts of terrorism? Well, in several ways, the terrorists have already won. Go take a trip on an airplane and that is plenty evident. Or try entering a county courthouse or Fargo’s federal court building. Yeh, in many ways, life has changed from the way anyone who is a late “boomer” upward grew up or probably ever thought they would see in the America we all still remember and frankly favor. It most definitely is a different world in many respects. However, when I send a slutty email to my husband inviting him to … well, whatever I might be considering, I’d like to know some nerd sitting bored for the last eight hours monitoring phone and email data isn’t giggling on his way home wondering about Soo and Ash and how their dinner went. That’s where I draw the line with what my government has a “right to know.”
Patrick Henry, one of our infamous American Revolutionaries, put it very succinctly: “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.” Ditto. My feelings exactly.
Questions and comments can be sent to: sooasheim@aol.com or the Extra Editor at: extramediasales@aol.com. All letters to the Editor can be sent by email to either address or by snail mail to: The Extra, P.O. Box 1026, Moorhead, Mn., 56560. If you have written or sent an editorial and have not seen it printed, please call Tammy at: 218-284-1288 or Soo at: 701-799-0992. For letters to the editor,please remember to add your city and phone number for verification (ph. numbers will not be printed).