ATTN: POTUS
RE: Prosecution of Eric Snowden
With respect to the surveillance debate, I don't wish to question your intentions, nor whether you believe you are doing the right thing, not because I am sure of your intentions and beliefs, but because they are and should be irrelevant. The mainstream media, secure in their flimflam role as myopic mouthpieces of the corporatocracy, would like us to spar with each other about the bona fides of our leaders' intentions, to become bogged down and divided by their artificial constructs of supposed defense mandates and weighty security priorities, as if their contrived entertainment could ever approximate a genuine exploration of what's really at stake. To the contrary, that is all an irrelevant distraction and should be ignored.
The real question is: Should we ever acquiesce to the government's assumption of power to conduct universal surveillance of every citizen's daily life? Should we acquiesce in such action conducted without specific probable cause, under color of law or not, much less when conducted in secret, without accountability to the public, or subject only to marginal (effectively mere sham) accountability of a secret, rubber stamp "court" staffed by a handful of security state acolytes? For two hundred years and more, through many more serious threats than the nation encounters now, the answer has been a resounding no, and it still is.
The existence of anyone’s good intentions or lack thereof, or some peoples' fears, are irrelevant, unless our society is willing to radically concede that our most fundamental principles of freedom and privacy should ever be subservient to the real or imagined, inflamed fears of some, and dependent on claims of the good intentions of whomever is in power. You believe those fundamental principles of freedom and privacy must be subservient to such fears, and dependent on such claims of good intentions, but I do not. Without humility, secure in a sense of righteousness -- whether warranted or not -- you dismiss the dangers. Like countless other Americans, I do not.
Although I may never have a fraction of Mr. Snowden's courage, I hope to stand with him and object to the wholesale surveillance and analysis of our every move, as is our right, and like him, my objections will not be intimidated or silenced by anyone. To speak out is a duty of citizenship; a failure to do so dishonors the sacrifices made by so many to protect our right to speak, to discuss, to be heard by an accountable government.
Mr. Snowden said he recognized someone must stand up first, and he bravely stood up. We should all be grateful he was not afraid to be the one, and not flinch from the responsibility to stand up next. If there is any justice in the future, someday he will be honored by the country, not prosecuted.
