The Patriot Act

Good citizens and patriots all, lend me your ear. The Patriot Act or at least parts of it expired at midnight Sunday.

The question put forth today in some polls is do you feel less safe? The answer should be no. The Patriot Act was passed with little debate post 9/11 out of fear. Some in Congress at the time voted no but most said yes without reading it or contemplating it's long-term consequences.

Prior to that horrible September day most Americans believed that our homeland could not be touched by foreign terrorists. Many in our government also believed this, they should have known better. Wide sweeping powers were ceded to the Executive Branch under the guise that they were the good guys and would never abuse their power. Even during the Bush Administration when some, including members of Congress, began to believe questionable actions were being taken concerning surveillance, President Bush said plainly if you don't like what's going on then take legislative action. Nothing was done on that front because Congress had abdicated it's constitutional duty to provide proper oversight. The President went on to do what he believed he had the right to do. A certain U.S. Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was against these alleged illegal surveillance activities and stated emphatically it should stop. He then became President and expanded the programs even though he could have stopped it with a sweep of his pen.

Some Americans argue that we shouldn't care, asserting "I'm not doing anything wrong so let them gather information on me."
I have always rejected this theory. It is not about whether the vast majority of Americans aren't doing anything wrong, it's about how much of our individual privacy and freedom should be sacrificed in the alleged name of security. My position is none.

The government already has in place the necessary tools to target individuals it suspects of wrongdoing. We now have a court decision stating that all of that meta data surveillance is illegal. There is bipartisan legislation to replace the Patriot Act with the Freedom Act. But there's politics afoot, hard to believe in a Presidential election cycle.

It will be resolved and very soon. We should provide the necessary tools to our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to act as quickly as possible to move against terrorists but we must insure a proper balance between security and our freedom, otherwise what's the point?