Enemy of the State

 

 

"Be careful on how much you feed the beast - the beast might end up consuming you"

 

Many think these are the times that tries men's souls. Our protector, our Government, is now suspect to many. In the 1998 thriller Enemy of the State, one of the nation's top intelligence agencies, the National Security Administration, got involved in politics and used its power and authority to ruin people's lives. I have seen the movie many times - very good fiction. The first time I watched it, the plot was almost laughable to me as it was so far fetched. It could never, ever happen here. Unfortunately, I no longer think that way.

Similar to science fiction morphing into science fact, our worst fears of a "Big Brother" type of government might be coming to fruition. Consequently, we might have to change some of our terminology. In the past, we would refer to novels such as 1984 and Brave New World as previews of a dystopian society. Today, we could call them prequels to what is unfolding before our very eyes.

So who today, is an enemy of the state? Not me - I have been, and still am, a patriot. I love this country more than life itself. The question I wrestle with is this - what does someone need to do to become an enemy of our beloved country? When I was in the Navy, you needed to do grave harm to the country to fall out of favor. Today, in what we have seen the past few weeks, all you need to hold the wrong political philosophy. At least that is the way it seems.

In the movie Enemy of the State, the state became like a monster, trying to devour one of its offspring. Our country was founded on a basic premise - the state is here to serve us and not visa versa. We fought incredible odds in the 1700's in order to live outside of tyranny - to live as free people in a newly formed Democratic Republic. I have talked to a great many people on the right side of politics who believe our government needs to be right sized and fixed. I have never, and I mean never, talked to anyone on that side who hated our country or wanted it destroyed. I dare guess the vast majority of people on the left feel the same way. 

That being said, I do believe there are some who are here legally as well as illegally, who hate our land, who hate our people. There are some very bad, bad people out there. These people will kill our innocents, including our children, and not lose a minute of sleep over it. These people are the real enemies of our state. We need to profile, identify and track each and every one of these bad actors before they do grave harm to our country. We need to focus every asset, every analyst, every byte of data located in the NSA, CIA, FBI or whatever, to keep us safe. Most of us, who are not enemies, don't give a damn about political correctness. We know who the enemies are and why they want to kill us.

Before more harm is done in how people feel about their county, we need to fix some things. The Patriot Act needs to be fixed. It needs to be a document which keeps us safe without limiting our freedoms. Our Israeli friends seem to know how to do it -  we should follow their lead and do the same.