an issue

An Issue of National Proportion

As Americans, we have a given set of guaranteed amendments. These amendments range in specifications and purpose, but serve to perform one goal. To protect and guarantee the rights of American citizens. The basic Amendments are the foundations for which this country has been established upon. It’s amazing to realize that Amendments that were passed over two hundred years ago still carry weight in our current society. Even after all the innovations and all the change that our society is now characterized by, these Amendments still maintain their presence. But as of right now, these given rights that have been set on stone for so long are in grave danger of being violated. The very catalyst for which makes this country the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave’ is the same catalyst that is being slowly crippled by laws enacted by our own government to further undermine the power of the United States citizen.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, or the NDAA, establishes that the United States government can seize any American citizen without reason other than suspicion that the person is engaged in some form of illegal activity. The reason this Bill was proposed was to protect the American people from the threat of terrorism. Logic behind this Bill is that the quicker the Government is able to seize terrorist suspects, the less likely another terrorist attack is to occur. But with this, our government has decided to shortchange the American people of liberty at the notion of security. So to quote the famous words of Benjamin Franklin, "Those willing to give up freedom for security deserve neither and will lose both."

If the NDAA was enacted, an American could be seized for no reason other than suspicion, given no trial, and be refused any sort of representation. this Bill basically strips an American of their Fifth and Sixth Amendment Rights. An even greater fear that many hold is that by the Government having this unchecked power, that similar more extreme bills could be aroused in the future. A sort of Domino Effect would occur, causing for even more drastic laws which violate the given rights of American citizens to be passed. A ‘Big Brother’ like society is in the works of being created because of Bills like the NDAA. A blind society in which the people conform to an all-powerful entity because the people are unaware of the power they possess.

The National Defense Authorization Act is a sign of a dying America. An America in which Miranda Rights have been swept under the rug, and an America in which personal freedoms are slowly being diminished to the ever increasing greedy hand of our Government. It is sickening to believe that our Miranda Rights and our Fifth and Sixth Amendment are under attack by the same sort of people that established such rights. 

Even more incredulous is that this Bill was passed 93 to 7 by our Congress. The Congressmen that have been elected to represent millions are sidelined by their own private agenda’s and have failed to recognize the deadly cancer that the NDAA represents. Our President, Barack Obama, has promised that if this Bill reaches his desk he will use his Presidential Power to turn it down immediately. A fear that I hold, as well as many others, is that somehow this Bill will evade the Presidential reach and end up being enacted.