It was september 12, 1973 that the people from Chile realized their privacy was over. They learned how to not be straightforward and it became so usual in their everyday communication that people learned how to train their minds to not say stuff they only dared to think about. Privacy is something you wished you had when you know the government is watching your every move and you have the fear that one day the government will get involved into your life. The government has been using spying on Americans as a weapon to reduce terrorist attacks but do they ever stop to think if the citizens get a choice on their techniques. The government shouldn’t spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists for the following reasons; they are treating innocent people like criminals, people don’t realize what is happening around them and it makes us uncomfortable that someone is watching our every move.
One of the most important reasons why the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists is that they are treating innocent people like criminals. In the article “Report Hints N.S.A Gets Less Data Than Believed”, Charlie Savage explains that when there is a crime suspect and they collect data from them they collect other people's data and they have nothing to do with it. For example, Charlie Savage says “ A suspect's phone call can be intercepted without touching any other people's calls. But on the Internet, data from different messages are broken up and intermingled, so collecting a suspect's email requires temporarily copying and sifting data from many people's messages”(16). This information shows that even if they are not directly collecting data from you if you have texted a crime suspect they will eventually collect your messages, but many people don’t realize that. This supports the argument that the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists because they got nothing to do in that criminal activity but they keep going through many people messages for only one crime suspect imagine how many other people would be involved in this if there were several crime suspects.
The second reason why the government shouldn’t spy on Americans is because people don’t realize what is happening around them. In the article “Stop the NSA While We Still Can” Rand Paul discusses how the government is very strategic and tries to keep us busy so we don't realize how they are taking the right of freedom away from us. For instance Rand Paul explains “In recent years, however, this right, like so many others, has come under attack by the overzealous powers that be in Washington, eager to sacrifice liberty in the name of security, and using fear as a weapon to make us forget the importance of being free”(5). This information demonstrates that you probably haven’t realized how much privacy is being taken away from you. This shows why the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists by showing you that people don’t advocate for this right and it’s because they are too caught up in the fear they
have for terrorist that they don’t realize what is being taken away from them in exchange for their security.
The third reason why the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans is that it makes us uncomfortable that someone is watching our every move. In the article “When A Government Spies On Its Citizens: Lessons From Chile”, Ariel Dorfman describes how he and his wife didn’t feel comfortable with the government taking over the country and they didn’t feel like they had privacy left. For instance, Dorfman explains, “That toxic atmosphere is one of the reasons Angélica and I no longer live in Chile, despite many efforts to return before and after the restoration of democracy. We could no longer recognize a homeland where the persistence of duplicity and dread stifled trust and creativity”(11). This anecdote illustrates how you can not live in a country that has been your home for as long as you can imagine but doesn’t offer you the privacy it once did. This supports the argument that the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorist because it drives the people away from the only home they’ve ever known and makes them feel invaded instead of protected.
While itś clear that the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists, others might say that the government should be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists because they are protecting us without breaking the law. For example, Marco Rubio states, ¨In fact, this program has been found legal and constitutional by at least 15 federal judges serving on the FISA Court on 35 occasions¨(5). Although it’s true that they are protecting us without breaking the law, this does nothing to prove that they should spy on us because it doesn’t explain how it brings us positive changes or if it helps the government protect us. Clearly, the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists.
While it's obvious that the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists, others might say that the government should be able to spy on Americans to keep them safe from terrorists because they are doing all this to protect us. For instance, Rand Paul argues, ¨We reject this premise. We are committed to a safe America, but we do not accept the notion that a surveillance state is necessary to safeguard the lives and liberty of American citizens¨(10). The fact that the government has to spy on its people to protect them demonstrates that they are not as smart as they say and can’t find a way to protect them without making them feel less protected. For this reason, the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists.
As you can see the government shouldn’t be able to spy on Americans to protect them from terrorists. This issue is critical because this is happening around you and you might not see this but if they are spying on us and we don’t try to stop them how far will our privacy be broken for us to be “protected”. Some people might not know this is happening or they might think it’s not important but how are we going to be able to live a free life knowing they know our every move, how are we going to feel safe? In order to stop the government from spying on us, unless we tell the government how we feel they will keep doing this without giving it a second thought. As citizens it’s our job to tell them how we feel about their tactics and give them our opinion and some ideas on how they can improve. If we don’t agree in what they are doing we shouldn’t just stand there with our arms crossed we should be thinking on doing something to change it because if you don’t stand up for yourself no one will. You can protest, and write letters to a congressman and support people like Rand Paul that is against the government spying.
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