Ben Ash - Reading Blog 5 - USA Patrioct Act

As a Political Science major, I like to do some light reading on how my current government masquerades its actions as “defense of freedom.” (Note – Heavy bias here :D) In this light, I recently brushed over the USA Patriot Act. I will start by saying I feel like this is a completely backwards name. In effect, the Patriot Act allows the government to expedite the process of intelligence gathering both foreign and domestically, this isn’t necessarily the best thing. While I do think it is important to protect the nation from terrorists (sadly, this needs to be said or the rest of this blog will be seen as advocating for terrorism), the country has started to lose the high ground on the issue. At Guantanamo Bay, “harsh” interrogation techniques have been employed to gather information. Torturing is the correct word, this government has just become very good at disguising things through creative names.
While I reiterate that I do believe in protection from terrorist attacks, Ben Franklin said once that “Those who are willing to sacrifice a little freedom for security deserve neither and will lose both.” I firmly believe this quote, as I don’t think it is much of a leap for the radical elements within our own government to see those against acts like the Patriot Act as terrorist sympathizers. While mildly Orwellian, I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to expect even more government oversight and restriction if this continues.