ran 3.2 miles
On this day in 2001, President George Bush signed into law the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism response to the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”, was intended to empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies, heightening their abilities to deter future terrorist attacks on America.
As an aside, what is the connection between our government and its obsession with acronyms? That is the longest, most ridiculous acronym I have ever come across. It makes you wonder what the order of priorities are when you see an acronym like that. Before all the important details of the USA PATRIOT Act were knitted out, I think it’s safe to say the acronym had all ten words applied to each letter, as a selling point of what their intentions were. It’s actually insulting, as if to say, “America, you are not really going to understand what exactly we are planning to do here, but we went ahead and made this fancy acronym so you can fully understand the Act we want to sign into law. Just follow these ten words. They’re pretty clever and if you take the first letter of each of the ten words it spells ‘USA PATRIOT.’”
As a future reference, anything our government tries enacting with ten or more characters that form an acronym is probably an edgy and risky idea, which your government believes is a strategy, though infantile, to winning your approval.
Regardless of our government’s condescension of its people’s intelligence, the USA PATRIOT Act was bound to have some cracks in it, but it had to be done. The majority of congress, on both sides of the aisle voted for it, but as time dwindled on, the Act lost popularity among civil right’s activists and organizations like the ACLU. It was not long before politicians who had voted the Act into law began to recant their decision, believing too much unchecked power was being wielded by the government to snoop into the lives of Americans. The Patriot Act was compared to the 1960s and 1970s when the FBI bugged and infiltrated anti-war and civil rights groups.
When those towers came crashing down, we all know something had to be done. The USA PATRIOT Act, barring the ridiculous acronym it stands for, was necessary but, as time tends to do, the severity and sense of urgency faded away until the Patriot Act turned into something else; a snooping, pestering and overbearing government.
If nothing else, September 11 has illustrated how circumstantial different times can be. This country was absolutely united and filled with compassion after that tragedy. Since then, the things that resonate most as being important during a crisis have once again faded away for a while. I would like to believe that tragedy is not necessary to highlight the important issues of any given day, but it is unfortunate when that is so often the case.
Speaking of acronyms and the childish antics politicians utilize to earn votes and approval from American people, whom they seem to believe are at twelve-year-old reading levels, stories are already making headlines about voter booth tampering, ACORN conspiracies, and the whole spectrum of corrupting the mid-term election. Things like this are one of the reasons why I never voted one single time until Barack Obama ran for president. I voted against him. A couple years have gone by and I have kept up with politics only to grow more fed up. I am going to vote against Barack Obama in 2012, as well, if he continues in the direction he is going and does not make an effort to undo what he has done or to repeal the damage he has already set in motion. I have come to a point now, as I’m sure many others have, too, that I don’t believe simply voting is even enough. That is why I am running. I feel like a member of a thoroughly united voice that goes unheard. I don’t know what else to do except to continue running and writing. These are the only tools I have to protest the corruption of politics and the intentions of our president.
1,924.7 miles to go.
On this day in 2001, President George Bush signed into law the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism response to the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”, was intended to empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies, heightening their abilities to deter future terrorist attacks on America.
As an aside, what is the connection between our government and its obsession with acronyms? That is the longest, most ridiculous acronym I have ever come across. It makes you wonder what the order of priorities are when you see an acronym like that. Before all the important details of the USA PATRIOT Act were knitted out, I think it’s safe to say the acronym had all ten words applied to each letter, as a selling point of what their intentions were. It’s actually insulting, as if to say, “America, you are not really going to understand what exactly we are planning to do here, but we went ahead and made this fancy acronym so you can fully understand the Act we want to sign into law. Just follow these ten words. They’re pretty clever and if you take the first letter of each of the ten words it spells ‘USA PATRIOT.’”
As a future reference, anything our government tries enacting with ten or more characters that form an acronym is probably an edgy and risky idea, which your government believes is a strategy, though infantile, to winning your approval.
Regardless of our government’s condescension of its people’s intelligence, the USA PATRIOT Act was bound to have some cracks in it, but it had to be done. The majority of congress, on both sides of the aisle voted for it, but as time dwindled on, the Act lost popularity among civil right’s activists and organizations like the ACLU. It was not long before politicians who had voted the Act into law began to recant their decision, believing too much unchecked power was being wielded by the government to snoop into the lives of Americans. The Patriot Act was compared to the 1960s and 1970s when the FBI bugged and infiltrated anti-war and civil rights groups.
When those towers came crashing down, we all know something had to be done. The USA PATRIOT Act, barring the ridiculous acronym it stands for, was necessary but, as time tends to do, the severity and sense of urgency faded away until the Patriot Act turned into something else; a snooping, pestering and overbearing government.
If nothing else, September 11 has illustrated how circumstantial different times can be. This country was absolutely united and filled with compassion after that tragedy. Since then, the things that resonate most as being important during a crisis have once again faded away for a while. I would like to believe that tragedy is not necessary to highlight the important issues of any given day, but it is unfortunate when that is so often the case.
Speaking of acronyms and the childish antics politicians utilize to earn votes and approval from American people, whom they seem to believe are at twelve-year-old reading levels, stories are already making headlines about voter booth tampering, ACORN conspiracies, and the whole spectrum of corrupting the mid-term election. Things like this are one of the reasons why I never voted one single time until Barack Obama ran for president. I voted against him. A couple years have gone by and I have kept up with politics only to grow more fed up. I am going to vote against Barack Obama in 2012, as well, if he continues in the direction he is going and does not make an effort to undo what he has done or to repeal the damage he has already set in motion. I have come to a point now, as I’m sure many others have, too, that I don’t believe simply voting is even enough. That is why I am running. I feel like a member of a thoroughly united voice that goes unheard. I don’t know what else to do except to continue running and writing. These are the only tools I have to protest the corruption of politics and the intentions of our president.
1,924.7 miles to go.
