Snowden followed conscience

Like every whistle-blower since 9/11, former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden is vilified by politicians and demonized in the media for telling the truth. In this case, that we are spied upon to a degree that foreign dictatorships only dreamed about.

Forget the Fourth Amendment, probable cause or common sense. Everything that every American does electronically is vacuumed up into an unaccountable and unconstitutional surveillance machine. All citizens are suspect in the eyes of this new Big Brother.

Snowden sacrificed his liberty and all the comforts he knew to shine a light into the dark heart of our government. For his courage, he joins Julian Assange and Bradley Manning in the cross hairs of those who benefit from our ignorance and fear.

Some say Snowden broke the law, ignoring the fact that the Constitution he upholds trumps unjust laws that promote tyranny. History is full of laws written by self-serving men to justify the indefensible, to include slavery, Native American subjugation, black segregation, internment of Japanese Americans and the imprisonment of people standing up for basic rights.

Snowden demonstrates that conscience best defines right or wrong, not law. As Tacitus wrote, “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”

Mike Kress

Spokane