This whole NSA surveillance scandal makes me angry and sad. Angry that the government would do it, angry that they would try double speak their way around it. Basically angry they would flagrantly disregard the 4th amendment while simultaneously saying they aren’t.

It makes me sad that people are so willing to let the government have this data, sad that people don’t understand the importance of meta-data. Frankly it makes me sad that Obama, whom I voted for, would do something like this.

Benjamin Franklin said

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

It’s important to remember that Benjamin Franklin was a leader during the Revolutionary war. He stood up to the British Empire, he was a founding father of a country that fought and bled for liberty. When he said this, his constituents had been wounded and lost family members. So when he said that he wouldn’t sacrifice liberty for safety, people knew what that meant. Safety was a really and tangible thing to them.

Benjamin Franklin made his position clear. That’s what a leader does, they don’t make that trade-off in secret. They don’t take away your liberty and not tell you. That’s why this scandal is so disappointing to me.