It is not often I feel the need to admit that a member of
the Republican delegation from Utah
has done something I can applaud. Usually, the delegation from Utah
follows tea-party lines, policies that I cannot accept.
Yesterday, however, I learned that the junior Senator from
Utah, Mike Lee (R), has co-sponsored a bill with a (gasp) Democrat; Patrick Leahy of Vermont
that would reign in the National Security Agency, the agency charged with
collecting metadata from all Americans that use email, cell phones, and
landlines.
Metadata- the information about we use our communication
devices- can be used to trace who we call (or email) and where our devices are
located. That information allows the NSA to listen to our private discussions.
There is a huge, brand new, data center in Bluffdale ,
Utah
Your calls to a grandparent in Europe ,
or in Topeka , are recorded. Did you
mention how you feel about the laws and legislation that affect you and your
family? It’s all recorded for future use, under the current law. It can be used
to brand you, or your grandmother, as a terrorist. Would my grandmother be a
terrorist, under today’s vision? She had strong feelings about Democrats, going
back to Roosevelt . God forbid the NSA had listened to those
conversations; she referred to him as a dictator! (The only time I heard her
use a cuss word was about Roosevelt ! That Damned
Democrat!)
I grew up in rural Colorado ,
and we had party lines. Agnes listened to every conversation my family had. We
knew that, ok? Mrs. Thompson (also on the party line) subscribed to the Wall
Street Journal, and sent a letter off to our congressmen almost every day! (Ok,
the postmaster had loose lips.) “Everybody knew” she was a communist because of
that.
But for the Government of the United
States of America to listen into, record, and
more importantly judge, the conversations I now have with my sister, brother,
and friends? WHY? I don’t think it is necessary for “national security.”
In the early days of America ,
groups of people met in bars and taverns to discuss how to birth our country.
They were careful as to how they spoke, and if a stranger entered into the room,
they became quiet and circumspectfull in their speech. It was illegal to speak
wrongly of the King and the Empire. Is it illegal today? Some would say no. I
disagree.
Today, we don’t know who is entering into, or listening to,
our conversation.
Today, under the current NSA policies, those discussions
will be recorded. What happened, friends, to free speech?
When I was younger, I read and studied Ayn Rand. I agreed
with a lot of what she said and proposed. Over the years, I have moved away
from that philosophy. Does that label me as a terrorist? I don’t think so, but.
. . what does the NSA think?
It is my opinion that discussion among friends and
co-workers, family, etc., helps us form our opinions, our beliefs. It is the
open dialogue about where our country is, and where it should be going, that
will propel our country forward. We are a diverse country, and in our
diversity, we can form common opinion.
Let me repeat that: We are a diverse country, and in our
diversity, we can form common opinion. It is not easy, it is not comfortable,
but it is what this country was founded upon. We may have to accept people who
do not believe as we do, who do not worship as we do, who form alliances we
disagree with.
But, this is what America
was founded upon! It took, what?, 10 years, to develop our current constitution
and its system of laws and regulation is still being improved upon! It is indeed
a moving goal; freedom is not easy nor is it free. In the immediate aftermath of
September 11 2001 , the so-called
“Patriot Act” was passed. Now, 14 years later, Senators Lee and Leahy are
acting to correct some of its most obvious mistakes.
Senator Lee, while I am opposed to a great majority of what
you have done in the past, and continue to do so today, I applaud you for this surprisingly
liberal stance.
Your opinions and comments are welcome, as always.
R. M. Bob Hartman