"I have a secret and it affects everyone of you..."

[kentuck]

"But I can't tell you because it is classified."

For me personally, the very idea of secrecy in government is anathema to the idea of democracy.

"But, you should not be concerned because we are doing it for your own good and safety."

It's rather like religion. It requires a leap of faith.

"Well, you don't want to die in a terrorist attack, do you?"

Well, in that case, I guess it is all right??

Somehow, I feel that something has been robbed from me. There is an anger and sorrow when I think about it...

[annabanana]

2. "faith"

... has no place in a government of, by, and for the People!!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. That's because the whole "terrorism" thing has become a joke.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government;

"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."

Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789

[LibDemAlways]

5. Years ago a person I know who had a security

clearance confided that the information he was privy too (which he did not divulge) was classified only because the US was engaged in unlawful, unconstitutional activities. This kind of shit has been going on for a very long time. Today the job classification "cyber warrior" - code for professional snoop - is huge in the defense industry. The police state has long been a reality. Now it's just more brazen and pervasive.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. Many of us carry secrets like this. This NSA thing has shed some much needed

light on an area of our government that, if people had any fucking clue about the magnitude of numbers and acts "our" government engages in every day they would be shocked, maybe into action.

[byeya]

6. You(we've) not only have been robbed but have been put in danger of arbitrary arrest.

[MisterP]

7. heck, the Vatican Secret Archives have been open since '81: *1881*