# 150 Ringer

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

#151 “Ringer”

June 18, 2013

Once, it was common to listen to the telephone ring carefully. One ring could have been your ring or someone else sharing that number. Alas, private lines were unusual for private homes. Businesses, on the other hand, had private lines to insure good rapport with customers and vendors alike.

To pick up the phone and hear “Number, please?” was an everyday experience for Americans as telephone service was in its infancy. When more widespread exchanges ranged across the nation, private lines became the rule rather than the exception.

Never did we think that the village practice of listening in on someone else’s phone calls morph into a program targeting millions of citizens and run by the National Security Agency.

I realize that the events of 9/11 precipitated many changes in our federal government. In the explosions that topped the World Trade Center, ravaged a section of the Pentagon and spun a jet into a Pennsylvania farm field, we found ourselves more at risk than any time in our history.

The War of 1812, Nazi U-boats spotted along the eastern seaboard and the threat of Japanese ground forces coming ashore from California to Washington State dissolved as ancient history as we realized that just 19 Islamic terrorists men took down three commercial airliners and wreaked havoc on the US economy in the name of their “holy war.”

Looking down the road, we don’t know what to expect. Thanks to a high school dropout who managed to land a job at the NSA, our enemies now have insight into methods designed to thwart planned attacks.

Should we be afraid? I am not sure on that one. Officials tell us that unless we have been in touch with a foreign terrorist or have frequent contacts with known terrorist sympathizers by phone, we have nothing to fear. That sounds reasonable, but the fact that the government had private cell phone companies comply with an order to release information is worrisome in itself.

In an age where technology reigns and hackers are able to dismantle security at banks, government agencies or private companies, we have reason to worry. It has been said that every legitimate business practice or valuable law enforcement tactic presents a tantalizing opportunity for some ne’er do well to go at it and figure a way around it.

So where are we in this new world disorder? That’s the big question. It would be better if we had leadership at the helm. It seems, instead, that we have what I term “weedership” — deep-rooted ideologies that inspire plans that quite often go against the grain of not only the people affected but also the U.S. Constitution that affords basic freedoms to all.

It will be a dicey proposition to see how all this sorts itself out. Despite what I might think of the program, it probably had — at its core — the belief that intercepting terror plots trumps a total scope of privacy for the average citizen. It is sad that we have come to this place.

Would that we faced identifiable enemies as we have in the past. However, with the porous borders and lax U.S Visa enforcement today, the government finds itself is in a tough spot.

We tread on shaky ground when we feel that our government continues its grasp of our lives and expands intrusion to a level never envisioned by The Founders. I wish I had an answer; but, in essence, there is no good answer to all this.

I leave you with one more question, “Could this NSA program be termed the 2013 version of The Party Line?” I hope not, but I’m not at all sure. All I can do at this point is ask you to think about it.

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