One Mans Opinion 6/8/2013
By Dewaine Shoulders

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine a little while ago. He was telling that he feels like the government is totally out of control, but his wife thinks that the government is doing the right thing by stepping up their surveillance of people that they deem potential terrorists. I asked him if he was planning on getting a divorce soon. He laughed, but understood what I was implying.

That is just one family feeling differently about what's taking place in DC.

When nearly half the country feels that the government is overstepping their authority, and nearly the other half thinks its perfectly alright for the government to spy on us, it tells me that America is as divided as it was back in the pre-Civil War days.

Take a look around; what do you see going on in our nation's capital? The IRS debacle; The NSA phone data-mining; The DoJ wiretapping the AP and Fox News reporters phones, email (even those of Rosen's parents). Least we forget Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the utter disregard for the rule of law when it comes to a host of other things that has happened in the last 10 years. Spending is out of control, and we keep borrowing money from China to pay for stuff for other countries. And then there's The Patriot Act, meant to protect us from terrorist. It has now been turned into a weapon of mass destruction, destroying or liberties one step at a time.

Now I know that there will be those that say that the government isn't encroaching on our liberties, and that they are doing everything above board, getting warrants to do the wiretapping, data-mining, etc.

You're missing the point.

The point is that the 4th Amendment is being sidestepped here. You have the right to privacy, and even candidate Obama said that this should not be happening back when he was running for president the first time around. You are missing the point that if the Justice Department, or the IRS, or the EPA, or any other government agency wants to, they can place you under surveillance, tap your phones, go through your email accounts, or where you choose to spend you free time on the Internet. Then they begin looking into your friends, and their friends, and so on and so on.

This has nothing to do with protecting us from terrorists, nor does it have anything to do with conspiracy theories. This has to do with the fundamental rights we enjoy as Americans to live our lives without being watched as if we are terrorists.

There is a clear pattern emerging here: out of control government taking liberties with our liberties. I assume that I have the right to express myself here, but what if the DoJ, the FBI, the CIA, or NSA decides to tap into my phone, computer, email, or place me under surveillance because they deem my words a threat to national security? They can get the proper warrants to do most anything to turn me into a criminal for expressing an opinion. And if you never hear from me again, they you know that what I have said here made me a target of their surveillance. Hell, you might see my picture on the wall at the Post Office one day.

Ask yourself one question: If George Bush was in office and all of this was going on, would you be feeling the same way you do now? If you can answer honestly, without politicizing it, they you should see what I see happening... The beginning of a police state.

But seriously, this is scary. No matter how you wish to spin it, our government now deems all of us potential terrorists. Is this the country you want? Not I. To me, it's looking more like the beginnings of Nazi Germany than the America I know and love.


But that's just my opinion, I could be right.