by Edward Hall

Created on: October 27, 2007

Start from the concept that the Federal Government threatens your Civil Liberties by existing because that is where Thomas Jefferson and several of the better thinkers started when they created it.

"The government that governs least governs best." That is an excerpt of Thomas Jefferson's often quoted.

Then there is this one, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Who said that?

The mission of the National Security Agency is to listen in on communications, especially electronic communications. So tell me, what are we doing here?

No, the world has turned quite a few times since those men in wigs and lieder hose wrote the Constitution and different circumstances require different answers.

Never doubt, however, that every increase in Federal Surveillance and Law Enforcement, no matter how necessary you might think it is, threatens your personal freedoms.

Originally our government was created as a Confederacy but it was not strong enough, so a Constitutional Convention was called and a Federal Government was created. Most, if not all, of the delegates did not trust the monster they had created.

So, in turn, they wrote twelve Amendments to that Constitution to limit the power of the government they had just created. Ten of these Amendments were past and these became what we now call, "The Bill of Rights".

In my humble opinion, for the sake of us all, these rights should be sacrosanct. I am not religious but I will defend your right to practice your religion. I am vocal so the right to speak freely is important to me.

Again, the wheel has turned, and we have so much more of a different world but the question is, what are you willing to trade?

Are you willing to allow the NSA to randomly listen to your phone calls to make certain terrorist are not using the phone system?

Me? I think every time we allow our lives to be burdened and our freedoms curtailed to "look for terrorist" that the Terrorist just won a victory.

The NSA, the ASA, the CIA, the FBI, and the list continues to grow ALL represent a threat to personal freedom. Most of the people involved in these organizations would not harm a hair on an American Citizen's head and want only to do use good. But the very existence of their organizations represent the potential for repression and tyranny. Has this day and time made them necessary evils? Maybe so.

But never doubt that "neccessary evils" are still evil.

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