Oliver Stone’s “Snowden” hit theaters on Friday September, 16th, and has been met with mixed reviews, but more importantly, brought the events that took place in 2013 back into the public sphere, thus prompting debate on what should happen with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

In 2006 he was employed by the CIA and later resigned in 2009. Upon resignation from the CIA, Snowden found employment with Dell and later Booz Allen Hamilton, both of which were under contract with the NSA, until 2013 when he decided to go to the press with the information he had.

When talking about the information that Snowden released to the public, one has to realize that we are talking about extremely complex technological programs that the government uses in their intelligence programs. 

My friends and family can all attest to the fact that I am not a tech savvy guy, far from it  actually. Technology is one of those subjects which give me great confusion. However, after much time spent on the internet, I believe I have come to understand what these documents released by Snowden mean and can explain them in a simple manner.

For the sake of space, I will only touch on a few pieces of information that Snowden released, the first of which is the mass collecting of phone records by the NSA. This is the first major story that was reported by The Guardian, and it is regarding the secret FISA court order that forced Verizon to provide the NSA with essentially all of their user’s phone records. It was later revealed that the NSA was getting similar information from AT&T and Sprint. 

Some other offenses made by the NSA are spying on world leaders and also being able to access and track what users do on the internet. Now you may be wondering, how does the NSA spy on world leaders? Well, it is exactly how it sounds. They track their movements, listen in on their phone calls and use any other method they deem appropriate. The latter offense is fairly self-explanatory. What you do on the internet, no matter who you are, can be accessed and tracked.

I do not know about you, but the idea of our government having access to who we call, what we search for online and who we friended on Facebook yesterday concerns me. Not only that, but that type of infringement on privacy is illegal according to the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

If the government is the one breaking the law by spying on us, then how did the narrative get twisted to make Snowden the enemy? Snowden swore an oath, not to the NSA or the President, but to the Constitution and, arguably, the American people. 

Here is a man that had a comfortable life and was employed by the most powerful entity on the planet, and he gave that all up to inform the American people that our rights were being violated and laws were being broken. If this is the kind of national security we need in the world of technology, then give me dangerous liberty instead.

The last thing I would like to say is this: pardon Edward Snowden. The US is a country built on a foundation of a government of the people, and on the premise that government cannot be trusted when the power is not in the hands of the people. Snowden proved to us that the power is not in our hands and that the government cannot be trusted because they have used their power to violate the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. 

Snowden risked his life to show us that we must take  government power back into our hands. It’s time to decide whether to boldly and loudly take back the power that once belonged to us, or  fall victim to an Orwellian nightmare. The time has come to pick a side, and I do not know about you, but I am ready for the fight.