Privacy Denied: Were You Violated?


Well the Bush administration is in the news again for another scandal. News dropped over the weekend that since shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the National Security Agency (NSA), under the direction of President Bush has been tapping phone lines and monitoring the emails of thousands of Americans. The war on terror is infringing more and more into the daily lives of Americans and it's not only because of terrorists. We are all potential suspects to the United States government, especially if you have any kind of affiliations with people outside of the United States. I bet they probably pulled a list of every Arab-American and anyone else from that part of the world that now lives in America and has been monitoring their communications. Of course I don't think it stops there. Have you called to anyone outside the United States? Emailed anyone from another country, especially one that the United States government considers to be a potential threat for terrorist activity? If you have, regardless of your race, it's likely that some of your communications have been monitored at some point without your knowledge.

The biggest problem is that this isn't legal! There is much debate now that this has been exposed about the legitimacy and need for Bush to go this far to collect anti-terrorism data. From all the shows I watched the past few days, where they have interviewed members of congress, lawyers and politicians, they all say that he has overstepped his authority as a president once again. He has abused his power and we are the victims not only of potential terrorist activity, but we are being victimized by our own government. Bush has also made it clear that he is going to continue this illegal activity, until an act of law forbids it. Does this man have an ego or what? When does he play by the rules? Can you imagine being able to do whatever you want and not be held accountable for it? Now we all know dayum well, if a Black president (if there ever will be such a thing in Amerikkka) were to do anything out of line or illegal in his presidency he'd be impeached before he could finish spelling the word. White privilege is undeniable and President Bush exhibits this frequently. How else could you explain someone becoming president of the US who is inarticulate, lacks intelligce and on top of that has a history of DWI's? Two words WHITE PRIVILEGE!

So how far will this eavesdropping go? For years they have been doing this kind of surveillance on groups considered to be radical in the US, especially Black led groups such as the Black Panthers and the Nation Of Islam as well as more peaceful movements such as that of Martin Luther King Jr. If we as Black gay folks become more radical against our oppressive mistreatment by governmental and social institutions, will we be the next to be under surveillance? Will they be tapping our phone lines and monitoring emails to make sure we don't get out of hand? It's hard to know where this kind of thing will stop, especially if it's being done illegally. Our president talks about values and virtues, but where is the virtue in breaking the law? I was reading the New York Times transcript of the radio address that President Bush gave on December 16th and he is quoted as saying "The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is what I will continue to do so long as I'm the president of the United States". I wonder what he considers to be under our laws and Constitution, because he broke the law when he had the NSA monitoring our communications without obtaining a warrant, which is the law. Had he followed the procedures properly this issue would not be coming up to haunt him. Our president is a criminal and this isn't the first of his criminal exploits and sadly, this probably isn't the last. We still have 3 years of his nonsense to deal with and I hope this country will be able to recover from the profound damage that's been done.

In the meantime realize that Big Brother is watching. This incident reminds me of the Jill Scott song off her first album called Watching Me, where she talked about the infringement of the government into our personal lives. I love the line when she says "Am I watching the TV or is it watching me, man I don't know". This could be a reality. Hopefully Congress will hold President Bush accountable for breaking the law. Could he be impeached for this? Who knows, but at some point his arrogance, disregard for abiding by the law and lack of honesty has to be stopped.