Edward Snowden: Friend or Foe

            Should Edward Snowden really be considered an enemy to the people of the United States? In my opinion, Edward Snowden should not be treated like a traitor, but instead the opposite. Many think that since the United States government system is a direct democracy, in which the people make the decisions, when in reality the government system is an indirect democracy where some Americans blindly vote for someone to make the decisions for them. This allows the government to take the power to make national decisions away from the people that put them in office. Snowden on the other hand was trying to restore this power to the American by showing them that the government sees everyone as a threat and is monitoring and tracking all of their conversations, yet some Americans believe Snowden is a traitor. If he actually desired to deceive the American people, he could have easily sold the information he acquired to those countries that want to bring harm to the United States, but instead he revealed to us what the government is doing behind our backs.

            Instead of letting the government try to prosecute Snowden for a crime that he did not commit, the American people should take the power they hold and command the government to welcome him back into our country with open arms. Edward Snowden stated in his interview with Greenwald, that he had access to the documents that gave the location of every US base around the world and the locations of every single secret agent that is under the command of the US, as well as the names of everyone that works in the surveillance agencies. If he truly did want to harm the United States he could have easily sold these documents to Russia or another enemy country, but instead he chose to give it to the people then they can see that the government is claiming much more authority than what we have given them. The Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights in order to protect the people of the United States from an overpowering government, yet what Snowden revealed is that the National Security Agency is ignoring the rights given to us by the Fourth Amendment. Associations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation try to bring justice to the NSA by attacking their partners that assist the agency with the infringement of the Fourth Amendment rights of the American people.

Something else that the American people do not understand is that Edward Snowden gave up the prosperous life and money he had while living in Hawaii, when he was contracted by government agencies. Just before he revealed the crime the NSA was committing, Snowden lived the life that many lower and middle class Americans could only hope to have and gave it all up in order for Americans to know the truth behind the NSA surveillance programs. So why should we let his sacrifice go in vain and allow the United States government brand Edward Snowden as a traitor, when in reality he is not? In return for doing something that most will never attempt to do, he only asks for the American people to take back the authority that the government has stolen from us and use it to command them to change their surveillance policies when it comes to targeting American citizens. I say we should also use our power over the government to make them forgive Snowden for his so called “treachery” and allow him to continue the life he had left behind.