One day when I was a young boy, I was watching a movie with my older brother about our former President Ronald Reagan. I was completely taken aback when a bystander in the movie asked John Hinckley what his thoughts were about the President and hearing him angrily reply; “F*** the President.” My brother was seemingly unfazed by the incredibly offensive comment of the man who would eventually try to assassinate President Reagan. I, however, remember asking my him in an outrage why Hinckley didn’t get in any trouble for saying such a disgusting thing, and he very politely looked at me and said “Free country, free speech.” I remembered those four words to this day and along with my interest in the workings of our nation’s government grew a serious
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Regardless of how atrocious some Americans may see it, Hinckley was totally within his right to make that comment just ask Snowden was within his right to want the secrets of these government programs exposed. Snowden unfortunately, was a government employee and a C.I.A. contractor, so the offense here, is more so a crossing of legal lines then a breach of ethic. Perhaps, if a lay civilian with no experience in a government agency had blown the whistle on this issue then it would have been received in a more positive light. This example of peaceful resistance is very beneficial to a free society because it reactivates a sense of awareness in the average citizen who cares about their rights—a sense that is periodically found lying dormant in those of us desensitized by the corruption and back-door-dealing that has become the American government. The goal of free speech and the other four paramount freedoms in the first amendment is to keep citizens from being stifled under the weight of dictatorship and totalitarianism, while emphasizing the United States as the democracy it was created to be. Edward Snowden took his right and used it to expose a group of programs that the National Security Agency was using at the time to infringe on the rights of private citizens. This NSA program (justified by the Patriot Act signed into law after 9/11) allowed government agents and corporations to access peoples’ personal information under the guise of protecting the homeland from terrorism and hacks and that’s simply
Regardless of how atrocious some Americans may see it, Hinckley was totally within his right to make that comment just ask Snowden was within his right to want the secrets of these government programs exposed. Snowden unfortunately, was a government employee and a C.I.A. contractor, so the offense here, is more so a crossing of legal lines then a breach of ethic. Perhaps, if a lay civilian with no experience in a government agency had blown the whistle on this issue then it would have been received in a more positive light. This example of peaceful resistance is very beneficial to a free society because it reactivates a sense of awareness in the average citizen who cares about their rights—a sense that is periodically found lying dormant in those of us desensitized by the corruption and back-door-dealing that has become the American government. The goal of free speech and the other four paramount freedoms in the first amendment is to keep citizens from being stifled under the weight of dictatorship and totalitarianism, while emphasizing the United States as the democracy it was created to be. Edward Snowden took his right and used it to expose a group of programs that the National Security Agency was using at the time to infringe on the rights of private citizens. This NSA program (justified by the Patriot Act signed into law after 9/11) allowed government agents and corporations to access peoples’ personal information under the guise of protecting the homeland from terrorism and hacks and that’s simply