Privacy? A thing of the future?

Fox News released an article titled “Senate panel approves bill requiring police to get a warrant to read emails”. In the article it says “The revised Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee will now move on to the full Senate for a vote. Passage would be a victory for privacy advocates, who say current privacy rules have been left in the dust by technological progress.” If this law were to be passed, it would mean that law enforcement agents would first have to obtain a search warrant before they were allowed to view personal emails, it would also put restrictions on the private files allowed to be obtained from websites. Stated in the article “Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, police only need a subpoena, issued without a judge's approval, to read emails that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old.” The article states, “The Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies have resisted the changes over concerns that investigations could take longer due to the new requirement in response to these issues.”

            Over the years our rights have slowly been taken away, this being a good example. The government can tap into your phone calls whenever they feel necessary, not having any reason at all. Although not explicitly stated in the constitution, some people feel that privacy rights are implied through out the constitution. “A key Senate panel approved legislation Thursday that would require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge before they can read a private citizen's emails, Facebook messages or other electronic communications.”

Government, a fancy way to spell "Joke"

One of my fellow classmates wrote a blog post titled “Dissent and Coercion”. The way the author wrote and described his view on U.S. Government was very intriguing. I think he defined our government perfectly, stating “Government – a corrupt, double dealing, thief, stealing from the poor and the middle class to make their rich buddies richer, passing crippling and invasive legislation that contradicts and disposes of the constitution, all the while lying to the American Public to promote its own agenda of greed and world domination.”

            If we, as a nation, would come together and rise up to once again pursue our morals and rights, things would drastically change. Each day it seems that we, American people are loosing more and more of our rights and freedoms. Laws are passed that go against our morals, greater than that, our constitutional rights. So, why don’t we do anything about it? I think it is well said in “Dissent and Coercion”, that “We Americans have all but left our senses at the door and fallen head first trusting in the government whole heartedly. Which is not surprising in the least, the government teaches us what to believe without us even realizing it. Public school, what a joke, we allow our kids to be taught whatever the government wants and don’t even second guess what their learning.”

            I don’t have much faith that our founding fathers would even be able to recognize the United States today. We have so drastically changed our beliefs and morals over the years. In closing, one sentence really stuck out at me, I believe this is the only way we will get America back on track, “We must follow the example of true patriots of this country…who believe in the constitution and will spend their lives fighting the tyranny of our corrupt government.”