Don Roach: NSA Warrantless Surveillance The Beginning of the End

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Don Roach, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

That’s right, this National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless surveillance program is the beginning of the end. Last month, the Guardian revealed how the NSA was mining our data on sites such as Google, Facebook, and a Verizon program that forced the telecom company to provide the government with call data. Since 9/11/2001, there have been a number of assaults on our privacy and the NSA warrantless program is just the latest in a soon-to-be long line of actions undertaken by our government to undermine our privacy by claiming it’s for our protection.

And it’s not just Republicans or Democrats that can be blamed. Bush II began a warrantless program that the Obama administration has continued. I had an encounter recently with a red ant that illustrates my concerns about our dwindling privacy.

Is that ant really up to no good?

Your friendly neighborhood political columnist was on his way to his day job and a large red ant was sniffing around my rear door. It’s summertime, ants aren’t an uncommon sight but this one was a little close for comfort near my door. What was he looking for? Was he hoping to get to the trash I forgot to take out that morning? (Sorry, honey.) Was he just minding his own business looking for whatever scraps he could find outside?

Since I don’t speak ant and he doesn’t speak English (except in movies like the aptly named…wait for it…Antz) there wasn’t any way I could ask him what his intentions were. And thus, I was left with a decision to make - step on him and destroy whatever evil intent he had in his mind or catch my train and stop wasting precious moments of my life worrying about one ant.

But, you see, one ant isn’t just one ant. They hunt and travel in packs sending out scouts to find new food sources. If this one got through my defenses he might invite his mom, brothers, sisters, and hairy Uncle Bob to my house. At the same time, don’t ants have a right to live on this earth just like I do? Do I have the right to kill them just because some of them terrorize my house every spring and summer? After all, ants eat discarded food on the sides of roads and also kill small pests that are harmful to gardens.

This got me thinking. The NSA warrantless program seeks to catch the minority among us that seek to do us harm. However, in so doing they undermine the freedoms/privacy of all of us by spying in areas that, in my opinion, are unconstitutional. In other words, even though there are a few bad ants does that mean all the ants need to suffer?

I ultimately decided not to step on the ant and hoped that he continued his journey to other parts of my lawn or better, my neighbor’s yard. Even though this is a relatively silly incident it does speak to the philosophical argument our national leaders are engaged in today.

Christie uses fear to support the NSA warrantless program

Chris Christie is a politician that I respect and in many ways admire for his ability to look beyond party line and consider what’s best in a situation. He took and will continue to take heat for praising President Obama’s efforts during Hurricane Sandy last year. Nonetheless I cannot agree with some of his recent comments about the NSA warrantless surveillance program. He said of those who do not like such programs:

These esoteric, intellectual debates — I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. And they won't, because that's a much tougher conversation to have.

In essence, Christie is telling us that these programs stop the spread of widows and orphans that result from terrorist attacks. He argues that’s its people who are in some form of “Ivory Tower” who have no clue what the victim’s family goes through.

If you allow me to interpret Christie, he’s saying “Be afraid of terrorists and subvert some of your freedoms so we catch these guys before they do anything bad.” That sounds fine and all, but Senator Rand Paul put it best, “I don't mind spying on terrorists. I just don't like spying on all Americans.”

Paul makes sense. Our efforts need to be spent spying on terrorists not invading the privacy of Americans in order to catch the minority who are terrorists. All of the ants shouldn’t have to suffer because of a few bad ones. Yet, do you agree with Christie and others who believe we should let go of some of our personal privacy to gain personal safety?

To me the NSA program is a slippery slope towards the government believing it has the right to monitor any and every aspect of our lives because there is a particular justification. It won’t end at this program and what we should be concerned about is that invading our privacy in order to hunt terrorists is an issue that is uniting many politicians on the left and right.

Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end.

Don Roach can be reached at [email protected]. Don is typically not a doom and gloom type of guy. Cheer him up with an e-mail.