Dakota Beacon

The discussion continues as to the proper function of the NSA, the National Security Administration.  Talk show callers never tire of the debate as to whether Snowden was a “traitor”, a “whistle-blower” or an outright “hero” – and what should be our government’s reaction to his decision to “out” the NSA.  On the one hand, the other agencies and branches of government tell us their hands have not been dirtied by the actions and spying of the NSA on American citizens.  They’ve tried to distance themselves from it.  On the other, they like to label those who bring light to bear on that agency “traitors” who should be prosecuted to the full extent of our laws, except, of course – as Secretary of State Kerry asserts – we won’t “torture” him.  Gee, that’s good to know.

Our congress has been an example of this – they are themselves innocent of the wrongdoing (or knowledge thereof) of the NSA but, by god, they’ll see Snowden punished for his part in illuminating it for them and for us.  After all, our “enemies” could find out what they’re doing too.  Well, world history is full of these dilemmas.  The Germans in 1934 elected Adolf Hitler president.  His nation was suffering tremendously from the crushing defeat and surrender of World War I.  He played the people very skillfully – it was them against the world, and he, Hitler, would protect them and save them.  Accordingly, these poor people handed over to him all of their rights – their privacy, their freedom of speech . . . and we all know what happened to them.  They became slaves of the state, like their cousins in Russia.  Some of them got “special” treatment – those who were ethnic Jews and Gypsies and those who tried to help them to escape the Holocaust.  Everyone knew his mail was read, his conversations listened in on.  I recall a story I read as a child – “Address Unknown”  - about a German businessman whose Jewish partner in America was pleading, in his letters, for assistance for his family that was trapped in Germany.  The succession of letters, read by the German version of the NSA as they were exchanged between the two, told the story of espionage by the state on its own people.   This remains one of the most chilling stories ever written.   (If you support the NSA’s claims and feel “threatened” by our “enemies”, you must read this before you go any further.)

The fact is that the German people handed over their freedom in exchange for what was billed as “security”.  They forgot, or perhaps never knew, that without freedom there is no security.  Your feared enemy becomes your own government.  That is where we have come now.  The people of Russia did the same thing.  They felt isolated and fearful of the outside world.  Their rulers of the Soviet took advantage of them.  They never knew freedom, but the promise of the freedom they might have found was given over in exchange for “security” and the “good of the state”.  We know how that worked – in Russia, in Romania, in East Germany, in China – in fact, everywhere it has happened.

There is little evidence that our government is interested in the least in “national security”.  How do we know this? The first duty of our government is to protect our borders.  So what is the government doing to secure them?  They are ordering the Border Patrol to stand down.  They are offering, both at the national and state levels, a wide range of attractions for illegal immigrants to violate our borders and our laws.  Our “legal” immigration permits people like the Saudis who flew planes into the Trade Towers, or the Tsarnaev boys to enter.  When we have solid evidence that someone is a potential or even active terrorist our government looks the other way.  The result is innocent people’s arms and legs blown off and Americans killed.  There was evidence that Tamarlan was implicated in a murder some months before the bombing of the Boston Marathon.  Where was our concern for national security then?   The Russians themselves gave us the truth on this family in plenty of time to prevent the breach of “national security” that occurred this spring.  Meanwhile we are supposed to offer up our privacy and our First Amendment rights on the altar of “national security”.  Does anyone believe this?

Any thinking American will reject out of hand such arguments for the NSA’s espionage.  After all, the mosques are immune to this program of snooping because that would be an insult to Muslims.   Our State Department was practically run by the Muslim Brotherhood with a little help from Hillary.  This is absurd.  The National Security Argument is absolute bunk.

Who, by the way, ARE our “enemies”?  Would they be people who would deprive us of our freedom and our Constitutional rights and laws?  Would it be those who want to destroy the nation founded by Jefferson, Adams, Washington?  Those who would do that are the NSA and their apologists.  In distorting our efforts to protect our country into a program that destroys it, these people, regardless of their motives, ARE the “enemy” of our country. 

Is a nation defined by its borders?  Then protect those borders and make them real.  Is it defined, rather, by its ideals and principles?  Then defend those ideals and principles. 

So, first, try to get a copy of “Address Unknown” so you fully appreciate the relevance of the right to privacy to our essential liberty.  This will show you what domestic espionage looks like.  Read up on the data mining and archiving done by the East Germans before they collapsed.  What did that do to the people of that sad nation?  Snooping, political correctness, guarded speech and writing – these are the features of a police state.  We see that they are also becoming the features of America. 

Secondly, convey your belief in freedom and privacy to your Congressmen and Senators during the break.  Tell them you don’t agree that our national security is more compromised by “enemies” than it is by domestic spies and data gathering programs and agencies.  Tell them to reject even the suggestion of discussion of an “immigration reform bill”.

American citizens, according to polling data, are not focused on “reforming” our immigration, other than to reinforce protection of our borders.  We don’t need a law to effect “reform”.  One of the fallacies with much of our public discourse is that we need more laws.  We could enact a law against breaking windows or against wife beating or child abuse or against stealing or murder.  We don’t need them.  It is understood.  A border, by definition, separates two countries.  In any normal scenario it would be guarded and people would not be permitted to violate it.  All that is needed is enforcement of current law.  Arm and authorize the Border Patrol to protect our national integrity vis-à-vis the border.  Forget new legislation which will have no other effect than to invite hoards of foreign nationals into our country to the detriment of our own workforce and economy . . . and national security

Would we really need the TSA fondling travelers at our airports if we did not allow these foreigners and terrorists entry?  Why do we have states offering in-state tuition to illegals?  Why do we have foreign student programs which are used to bring in these people?  We don’t need this. 

If we are to admit others into our country to visit or become residents here, perhaps to seek citizenship, let it by on a case-by-case basis.  We are at a point where we must decide what we are to be – another chip on the international open-borders landscape, undistinguishable from any other police state, or the gold standard of liberty that we have claimed we are.  We have always welcomed immigrants and have those who wish to live the dream of opportunity and freedom we have always enjoyed as Americans.  But we should say “no” to people who would begin by breaking our laws, people who cannot or would not make a genuine contribution to America and whose who do not desire to become Americans and pledge their allegiance to our country.  And they should not come in armies – that is known throughout history as a hostile invasion, an act of war.  They should come one person or one family at a time, screened, qualified.  And when during a probation period they behave in contravention of our national security, remove them. 

Instead of this sane approach, we do all we can – or rather, our government does all it can – to entice the least worthy and most dangerous elements into America.  And then they tell us that they need to read our emails, scan our snail mail and listen to and/or track our phone calls in the interest of our “national security”.  I hope that American citizens will contact their legislative representatives during the August break to convey this perception to them.  Our national character is in far greater peril from our keepers at the NSA than our national security is from “enemies” abroad.   Ask any man on the street – see whether they feel more threatened by North Korea or Iran or Russia or China than they feel threatened by the NSA, the IRS, the EPA or the rest of our own government alphabet.

Sally Morris is a former member of the North Dakota and Minnesota Republican organizations and a member of Americans for Constitutional Government and the Valley Tea Party Conservative Coalition.  Please visit her website at http://fromtherampart.webs.com.