The Value Of The NSA

The United States of America, the self-proclaimed land of the free, and home of the brave. We have built a society of educated, self-sustaining individuals, all working to support our local communities, and our country as a whole. It’s amazing how far human society has come, from the days of living in teepees, hunting buffalo, to the modern marvels of logistics, aeronautics, and telecommunications, we really have accomplished a lot. However, our nation isn’t without its share of problems, and big ones, at that. We face a serious economic crisis due to the out of control spending of our government, equality is under threat by radical groups who wish to deny basic rights, like marriage, to their peers, our police force is becoming increasingly less concerned with the safety of the public, instead focusing on their own protection.

We value our freedom above all else, going to nearly any cost to defend it. Along with this, however, we also gain a strong attachment to our privacy, defending it as vivaciously as we do our freedom. This attachment to privacy is evidenced by the outrage expressed at the NSA’s surveillance programs. These programs were set up by the US government to detect terrorists and criminals operating covertly within our borders, and included such activities as warrantless wiretapping and recording of all internet traffic. While these activities are disturbing, and should definitely have been more well-regulated and transparent, they are necessary for the security of our country. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, freedom is balancing out these security checks. The American people value there various civil liberties and freedoms greatly, viewing the bill of rights as one of the most important documents in history. There are even entire political parties and action groups dedicated to defending the rights given to us in the first, second, fourth, and various other