On this independence day weekend, please take a moment to think about a couple patriots who are being denied their freedoms. Pfc. Bradley Manning, facing trial for leaking classified information regarding the systemic abuses that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of U.S. Citizens. Pfc. Manning was in solitary confinement in Quantico from July 29th, 2010 until April 20th, 2013 in what UN special rapporteur on torture has formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Think also of Edward Snowden, his passport has been revoked, he is stuck (purportedly) in a Moscow airport awaiting word from a number of countries he has asked for asylum. Snowden alerted the world to things many knew already; the US government had a large network of information gathering and compiling from emails, phone calls, and GPS data from cell phones of US citizens, and citizens of many other countries.
This country is supposed to protect whistle-blowers, yet we have continually balked at that charge. People celebrate the release of the Pentagon Papers, yet seem unable to make connections to the current releases of information.
"The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate." - Thomas Jefferson
We as citizens need to live by these words, or we risk losing what is so precious and defining about democracy: people.
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