There is much concern by some Americans that the National Security Agency has access to our emails and phone calls. Those concerned feel that their privacy has been violated and fear that they may have been targeted because of their personal importance and their intimate emails might be shared with strangers who are overreaching their authority to indulge in some interesting reading and listening.
So the fear among some is that their requests for more information about some products available on the web like men’s shirts on sale for this week only, or a build your own BMW site could be viewed by others, strangers. Some might fear that the funny cat videos we forward to friends could be intercepted and misinterpreted by spies desperate to get something on us because of our importance making everything we do is both sacred and subject to violation.
I have a different take. I have been writing my elected officials about problems that face us for years now with little success. When the housing crisis hit and millions of homeowners were unable or unwilling to pay their mortgage amount because the value of their collateral - their home - had declined, I wrote letters suggesting a solution of sorts. Never mind the fact that the home is the same home and provides the same value to its inhabitants. Never mind that many purchases made with credit become worth less than the debt they created, everything from clothing to appliances to electrical devices. I had the solution and wrote to every official I could. My answer was to have the banks let these homeowners pay only interest at the current low rate on the remaining balance until the financial situation improves, cutting their payments by more than half and making them cheaper than the prevailing rental rates. The homeowners would pay less than half of their mortgage payment while maintaining their credit rating, banks would not lose money on bad loans and foreclosures and the government and taxpayer would pay nothing.
My letters were read by young interns. These 20-something-year-olds are trained to find the topic and then mail back a form letter from their boss. The letter Senator Feinstein’s young staff sent me was a letter saying the senator totally agreed with me that the government should spend tens of billions of dollars to pay down the troubled mortgages and subsidize the fees associated with refinance. My letters to the President got similar form responses, disregarding my idea and repeating his own.
The same happened when I sent them all my tax plan which would eliminate all itemized deductions and credits for personal income taxes replacing them all with a standard deduction and would count all income as equal ( e.g., earned income is equal to dividends, UIB payments, Social Security, interest, etc.) with only about five tax brackets. My plan would reduce fraud, simplify tax preparation, raise revenue and make taxes fairer getting the rich to pay more while getting more families to contribute something, This brilliant plan has also been ignored by our decision makers who assure us that they are trying so hard to deal with these difficult problems.
I have found it impossible to get a good idea to our political leaders.
I write long emails also to friends on both the far right and left. I argue each point with them online articulating what I think our government should be doing like closing hundreds of our foreign bases, reducing foreign aid, cutting waste in government - by eliminating the penny and nickel, ending the blue Angels and Fleet Week, eliminating Saturday mail delivery, ending reimbursement for travel for training or conventions, etc. - simplifying our tax code, reversing outsourcing, dealing with the document free resident problem and immediately withdrawing from the Middle East.
I want NSA to read these emails and then show them to the President and our elected officials. Maybe they could be also shown online and on the front page of all our major papers. If they also show my picture, I want it to be a very flattering one, maybe it could be retouched a bit to make me look younger with a full head of hair - red hair might be nice.
Oh what fun all that attention would be. Maybe I could become an international folk hero like loyal Americans Ed Snowden and Private Brad Manning without years in prison, as they surely will. But narcissists probably feel that all the attention is well worth the penalties.
So please, NSA, don’t read my fellow Americans’ communications because surely they are precious, just read mine. I’ll make sure that the spelling and grammar are correct and I will always speak clearly while making phone calls to friends and relatives. As an added incentive, I will try to include some humor, the kind I think you spies would enjoy.
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