Senator Lee again, but not what you think!

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 that operates 24/7/365 to follow your calls and emails. The NSA currently traces who we talk to, and what we say. This is the information that the “USA Freedom Act” will not allow the government to have.

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