USA Patriot Act Editoral

After considering the opinionated articles from the New York Times, there are definitely people for and against the USA Patriot Act. However it seems like there are more people who agree that the act is and/or will deprive the American public of privacy that they deserve. I have to be honest that I am in agreement with some major points on both sides. Personally I think that hearts behind the creation of the USA Patriot Act we’re in the right place. The purpose of the act was to create a greater sense of safety. This idea in itself is reasonable, the problem lies within the limitations that should be set. Some of the things that this act allows are unnecessary. For example the government is allowed to check what type of books a person is interested in through their library records. I think it is interesting how people who check out a certain book can be viewed as suspicious. What about though, the person who wrote the book in the first place? Are they also viewed as suspicious?

This act in itself has redefined what a terrorist is because the requirements of being a suspicious person are not specific enough. Terrorism is the main concern, however many feel that the focus is to take over the lives of Americans by invading their privacy. Certainly this would raise debate because privacy is something that Americans feel like they are owed. Americans want safety but not at the cost of losing their privacy. Something could and should be done to please them in both ways. Maybe the techniques that are allowed by means of this act could be change so that innocent Americans aren’t being interrogated, in a sense. If efforts to protect the U.S continue to be put in the wrong place it may turn out for the worst. One comment brought out that this issue may be leading us closer and closer to a dictatorship. Another said that essentially the terrorist have won because of this controversy. Both of these statement are exactly what we don’t want to happen so I think its best that the whole act should not be changed rather some pieces should be tweaked. If not, our reality will become the fiction of Tony Scott’s Enemy Of the State.