by Robert Mckenna

Created on: July 30, 2010

Privacy by definition per the Encarta Dictionary says, “The state of being apart from other people, not seen, heard, or disturbed by them.”  This is unobtainable for the majority of Americans.  The second definition, the definition most unrealistic, unreasonable, and unconscionable in the world today says, and I quote, “Freedom from the observation, intrusion, or intention of others.”  This is absolutely, no longer possible.  The conclusion that the world has any place left where privacy still exists is a non sequitur. 

However, the worst part of losing the ability to live private lives in this country, community, and as an individual, is this loss has happened with the complete blessing of the American people.  The US citizens as a whole can hardly contain themselves in making even the most intimate details of their lives public knowledge.  Facebook, Twitter, etcetera, are examples of how people are lulled, duped into sharing with the world, everything in their life.

The insidious nature of the government’s desire to have complete knowledge of every person in this country runs much deeper than little computer programs designed to draw-out personal information.  The quest runs deeper than installing cameras at intersections in all the metropolitan areas.  The former President of the United States signed a secret executive order to allow Spy satellites to aim at Americans.  Powerful satellites that pick-up every word spoken on cell and hard line phones are gathering dossiers on every American, under the guise of protection from terrorism.  Who is protecting the people of the United States from the protectors?

The NSA has in excess of thirty-six thousand employees who monitor these communications.  They gather 4 petabytes of information annually.  That much information works out to around 12 filing cabinets of documentation for every citizen in the country per annum.  The NSA has a budget of 26.7 billion dollars.  Where is the privacy guaranteed in the Constitution?  The Patriot Act has superseded the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.  This was done with the blessing of Congress.  Those few Congressional leaders who questioned the legitimacy of such sweeping power given to the government were promised it would only be used sparingly, and would cease to be a law once terrorism was defeated.  The whole argument is reminiscent of The Federal Income Tax, which too was only to be temporary, to help defray the costs of the First World War.  Pandora’s Box was opened.

Maybe you are one of those people who believe our government should spy on its own citizens.  The House Democrats wanted to see what kind of information the NSA was gathering, and in 2006 were unsuccessful in seeing anything collected, as the US Attorney General refused our representatives' access.  Big Brother is watching, and only when enough information is gathered to hurt you or your family will you ever find out what they are watching.  This is hardly what the Founding Fathers had intended when they wrote the IV Amendment. 

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