NSA and the Ally Way

    The advertisers sell us our on own fear and respectable phobias, the televangelists and their excessive stages, re-imagine the art of magicians and illusionists, Above them all, the elected in Washington are the ministers and salesman of our current want and alarm. Right now the media keywords are: NSA, phone records, security. But wonder outside of the smoke filled house party for a moment. Take your Sierra Nevada or Blue Moon outside for a few and imagine all of this has happened before under different acronyms and presidential administrations. Look up into the city's hazy dome and recall the fury and busyness of cable news over the Patriot Act. That once we were asked to read 1984, and Orwell’s 25 cent paperback essays were common when book stores were. We have to remind ourselves; we are violable to fear the wrong fears. Also, insert your favorite Ben Franklin quote about security.
    The narrative that we need a ‘balance between security and safety’ is an idyllic effort to lure us into a childhood playground where everyone has the same general shape and weight and are raised then lowered on a See Saw. This simple and natural equilibrium is assumed. Except these charlitins are also the same individuals telling us that global commerce and responsibility are far too complicated for simple and outdated solutions; what they really mean in parenthesis is, the Rhode Scholars and leaguers had better just take the baton for the final lap.
    When you are looking up there in the backyard haze, maybe you are fortunate to see stars, textures in the night. Maybe you feel small and at the same moment capable to chose one wedge and plot of earth for your own pleasure. They used to call it happiness. They used to have many words for freedom. We used to print “mind your business” on our currency. The world is more complex now. We can discover much with covert surveillance. People are there to harm us (some of us). But when have they not been? Fear. Have learned to fear. The other. He is behind ya. Doesn't anyone else remember how to fight in an ally?