Who Watches the Watchers?

It is hard to say what the overall opinion in this country is regarding Snowden. But for those that think his case is black and white and he is a traitor I ask you give the following some consideration.

Imagine if Edward Snowden, US Citizen and IT Geek contractor douche-bag were instead named <insert stereotypical foreign name of choice>. And was say a Chinese (or < insert foreign nation of choice >) citizen and IT Geek contractor douche-bag having spilled the beans on said government domestic and international signals interception spying programs?

What would your feelings of this supposed persons actions be?

Wash rinse and repeat for Bradley (Now Chelsea) Manning and Edward Snowden.

If you would brand them traitors to their respective countries and unworthy of further consideration I applaud you and bid you continue on bashing these two folks as you were. However, if you think.. hmmm... I might have liked and cheered what these proposed foreign folks did even though it was precisely the same action, then perhaps you are not fully considering what it is Manning and Snowden did.

In my opinion the heart of this case is a pretty simple issue. And it isn't a citizens right to privacy or a governments right to secrecy. It is something more fundamental. Who watches the Watchers? Ok, perhaps simple is the wrong term. The problem is simple to list but solving it is a fundamental, perhaps unresolvable, problem of governments.

In both cases the US government was doing something that was at best questionable, and at worst completely wrong. And in both cases the 'system' that they were operating in was fundamentally broken with no real recourse for effectively elevating the issues they were exposed to. I read often that many say they had 'no right' to take action on their own. Something I strongly disagree with. We the people of the United States of America In order to form a more perfect Union... these are not just words. They are the foundation of our way of government. And it starts with we the people. When the government we empowered and formed steps out of line it is not only our right, but our duty to act to bring it back in line. It is NOT ok for our government to hide behind itself and hold itself separate from the power of we the people. 

Who watches the watchers? If not the Mannings and Snowdens (aka Whistleblowers) then who? They are we the people. They were exposed to information of wrong doing with no effective legal way to expose it. And they took action. And now that we know I ask this question. How many more knew and did not act? 

If you contend the law of the land is supreme and our representational government can enact law that shields itself from the actions of the people then you give up what our forefathers worked so hard to create. A government of the people, as opposed to one that is above the people.

But they broke the law and have to pay for that? There is merit to this point. But let us look at a similar situation where laws where broken in order to help enact change. Civil Rights. The civil rights movement is littered with those who faced and endured legal consequences for breaking the law of the land upheld by federal precedent (separate but equal) through non-violent protests and civil disobedience. But is that the legacy we really want? That in order to change that which is wrong we have to punish folks who do and fight for what is right? We see that as a necesarry part of how to correct the wrongs of our government? We should not celebrate images of Dr. Martin Luther King behind bars for civil disobedience. We should hang our heads in shame that we did not figure out how to deal more expeditiously with that horrible problem. So it goes with Manning and Snowden. They beyond a shadow of a doubt uncovered actions by our government that were and are unconstitutional. For that they should be thanked, not banished and/or locked up.