This has been an absolutely horrendous week in the world of news. If you see this logo, then pay attention to what’s being said. Especially if the words are coming from experts like the EFF:
This logo was created by the EFF in 2008 when a domestic surveillance scandal broke in the US. The NSA was discovered to be spying on Americans in an unprecedented way because of a broad interpretation of the Patriot Act and FISA. Well, here it is 2013 and another scandal is in the process of breaking wide open due to some amazing work by The Guardian UK and the Washington Post. It was leaked that Verizon was forced to provide ALL cell communications to the NSA on a daily basis, irregardless of the contents association with any investigation on national security. National security has become a catch-all phrase for any activity by any organization or institution in the US and abroad to stomp on civil liberties. The reactions to the increase in actions like surveillance, cybersecurity, and whistleblowing crackdown has been swift from citizens around the world. But it has also not been all-inclusive because there are still not enough people who are angry. It’s easy to see that the actions of the state in many cases are putting its people directly into the path of harm. For those people who claim that if you’re not doing anything wrong, then you don’t have anything to worry about, have you seen what we humans are capable of doing when we’re given unlimited power? Look through history and you’ll see too many atrocious acts done in the name of the law.
Democracy has become a hollow word of late, as liberty has become a casualty of this war for national security. There are many actions that our agencies do without our knowledge, and many people feel safe because of these secret actions. Maybe we shouldn’t be so complacent? Last night, I saw a movie on Cinemoi called Redacted. It was a fictional dramatization by Brian De Palma that told a story about the Iraq War, and the atrocities seen and done by a US Army platoon and the responses from the Iraqi people in Samarra. I never heard about this movie, and was hesitant to watch it as I disagree with the concept of war. And for me, a former military dependent who once thought about entering the service, to say this is difficult because I’m proud of what my Dad went through. I understand what the military life is about because I lived in it for almost half of my life. But after watching this movie, I was sick. Sick at the violence, but even more appalled at the way the soldiers behaved during their tours abroad. War is ugly. I get that. But the actions and words of the people who fight in these wars is something that is impossible to understand.
Everywhere we look, actions done by those we are supposed to trust have been unconscionable. And their reactions to people protesting prove that we have the wrong people in power. Politics has always been about picking a side and following the ideology. We’ve forgotten that there is a human aspect behind politics, because it directly impacts how we live with one another. When laws supersede these lives then we need to question just what we’re doing, and why we’re doing them. Democracy is more important than ever now because this world has become intolerable with much done at the hands of those we are supposed to be able to trust. People we keep electing.
The revelations that we’ve been living through in the past year (well, way longer than this) have been appalling, and it seems that it’s now up to us to do something about it. And we need to realize that whistleblowing is still a valuable tool for finding the truth, as the leaks that are occurring continually prove. The amount of institutional wrongdoing has reached a level that we’ve never dreamed of seeing in our lifetimes.
Thanks should also go to Senator Wyden and those who have continued to stand up for the citizens in the face of sheer madness.
