A year ago, a light got directed into a dark corner of our government.

How that light got turned on is a bit questionable, but it happened and now there’s no way to deny that our intelligence agencies are more than a little out of control. Without the knowledge of a large part of the government, and most certainly without a mandate from the population, massive amounts of data were being collected on American citizens.

Gleaned from every electronic network you could imagine, “metadata” was being harvested hand over fist… just because. They’re calling it “metadata” because that belies just how revealing it can be by masking it in techno-babble. “We’re not listening in! We’re just getting the metadata!” (So, y’know, they only who you’re talking to, when, for how long, and where both parties are… noting invasive in that, right?)

There’s a fight going on now. A fight for our rights to privacy. A fight for our right to know what our government is up to. A fight for the future usefulness of the Internet as a whole.

Yes, this ties into the whole Net Neutrality battle, too.

There’s just far too much at stake to not take some sort of stand, to not speak out. Remaining on the sidelines isn’t an option if you want things to change for the better… if you want to know you’re not going to suddenly find yourself on a watch list, or banned from air travel, or just constantly under surveillance for no good reason other than “they can.”

If you’re not ready to speak out loudly, then at least listen. Take the time to actually read a few articles. To think about the road we’ve been on for well over a decade. About the rash decisions that have chipped away at the freedoms we, as Americans, tend to cling to. Freedom, Rule of Law, Presumption of Innocence. “Little” things that are the cornerstones of everything we tend to think of as kind of important… things we’ve fought shooting wars in the name of and that we cheer whenever another nation steps up to those who would crush those ideals.

Some will say “Why bother? Nothing’s going to change anyway. They may be listening, but they never listen when we call for change. They’ll always just do what they want, anyway.”

If you don’t speak up, you only ensure you won’t be heard. You prove “them” right when they argue back that they have to take such an active role because people don’t care enough to take any action themselves… “after all,” they’d likely add, “no one’s really complaining about it.”

Be loud. Be active. Make it so no one can ever say We the People don’t care. So no one can ever think they can just walk all over us.

That can only happen if we let it.

We still have power.

Use it.