Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

There is a group of people who are celebrating around the country. They celebrate because the sermon they have been preaching for years has finally come to light. Those celebrants are the conspiracy theorists who can point to alleged NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and declare “I told you so!”

For decades, I’ve been hearing that the federal government has been spying on us. We know, for example, that the late J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, kept files on citizens he felt were subversive. It has come to light that he had the single largest collection of pornography in order to blackmail individuals to cease and desist in behavior he felt was detrimental to his agenda. His files on members of the Black Panther Party, Martin Luther King, John and Robert Kennedy to name a few, were legendary. Although Hoover blatantly violated the civil liberties of many American citizens, he can almost be forgiven for his dictatorial, myopic view of the world as he knew it.

Fast forward from the reign of Hoover to the current spate of US intelligence agencies. We have the FBI which is charged with investigating terrorism, civil rights, public corruption, kidnapping and organized crime. And each of us is aware of the infamous FBI’s most wanted list – one of the visible and effective means of law enforcement communication ever.

The Central Intelligence Agency is charged with collecting, analyzing and disseminating foreign intelligence to the president and other government decision makers relating to national security. The CIA is not a law enforcement agency and is not authorized to conduct operations in the US. However, in matters of national security like counterterrorism, the CIA works closely with the FBI.

The Department of Homeland Security, the knee jerk response to the September 11th attacks, is charged with one goal which is to keep America safe. Although the goal is clear and direct, this department has, in just 11 years, become the third largest cabinet department and the single biggest violator of civil liberties in recent history.

The highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) and its newer arm, the Central Security Service (CSS) are charged with providing services and products to the Department of Defense, the aforementioned intelligence agencies, government agencies, select allies and coalition partners. This was the agency that employed Edward Snowden and this is the agency we should all fear.

Snowden blew the whistle on his bosses at the NSA informing the American people that this agency has been listening in on our phone calls, monitoring our emails and scanning our mail in the name of national security for quite some time. This blatant violation of the Constitution would be funny if it were not so dangerous.

NSA/CSS officials claim this invasion of privacy has allowed them to curtail various terrorist activities and arrest potential terrorists. None of these plots or the possible perpetrators has been seen nor has it been reported that these individuals will be standing trial for these supposed actions. What this tells me and many others is this government sanctioned spying of American citizens is another way of weeding out potential activists who would gain a voice in the way this country is governed. When the government has the means, the motive and the opportunity to crush their opponents before the opponents can even get a foot in the door, it is a very viable method of control.

Snowden has brought to light more than the fact that the US government is committing the same abuses it claims were committed by the former Soviet Union and are currently being committed by Communist China is just one of the many ways our government is playing fast and loose with the Constitution under the guise of keeping us safe. Not to mention the fact that our government is being blatantly hypocritical. Their idea of keeping us safe is keeping us ignorant of what they do and how they do it. Keeping us safe, as they define it, is keeping us in fear.

At this juncture, it is not enough to declare Snowden a hero when he is being demonized by our government. It is not enough to hope he finds asylum somewhere and continues to bring NSA abuses to light. It is not enough for us to recognize that our communication has been and continues to be monitored by a government maintaining we are free from oppression. And it is not enough to sign the various online petitions exhorting our elected officials to order the NSA to stop spying on American citizens.

It is time for us to say enough is enough. We need to flood Congress, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and the directors of each agency and department with calls, emails, letters, tweets, faxes and postcards reminding them of the commitment they made to observe our constitutional rights. We need to remind them that they work for us. We need to let them know that keeping us safe does not mean they have the right to spy on us and we will not allow any of them to work against us in the name of national security.

Edward Snowden sounded the alarm. It is time for us to get up and get to work. If we don’t, we will have taken one giant step towards a future none of us wishes for, the future as predicted in George Orwell’s prophetic novel 1984. Then we really will have something to fear.