I’ll be attending WordCamp Birmingham coming up on August 24-25. Not only will it be awesome to represent Automattic there, but it will also be my first time attending a WordCamp at all! If you’re in the area, there’s still time to register. I would love to see and meet as many folks there as I can, so let me know if you’re coming, you’ll be able to find me at the Happiness Bar!
With the news that’s come out in the past few days, I wanted to write down my thoughts on the subject and why I think it matters. I don’t want to rehash all the details and differing reports coming from news sources and tech companies, you can read those for yourself, as information is still developing and changing.
In my eyes, the internet should be a place of freedom where we can share what we’d like to without fear of having it subjected to scrutiny by our government or anyone else for that matter. Whether or not large tech companies and social networks are allowing the US government access has yet to be determined, but if they are I think it’s a huge mistake on their part and does a great disservice to their users. It seems that our government is no longer “by the people, for the people” and is instead only interested in making sure it can continue to rule over us.
I’m all for national security and gathering intelligence, but not at the expense of law-abiding citizens of this country’s privacy and right to share what they would like to and leave the rest for themselves, not have the government snoop in their private information.
Agree or disagree?
I’m not usually one to get involved in political discussions or to post about my views in public. Politics have become such a vicious arena, with one candidate or party doing whatever they can to discount the other. However, I’ve had these thoughts on my mind for a while, and think it’s time to put them out there for everyone, whether they agree or disagree.
As you can probably gather from the title, I feel that as an American today, my freedoms are slowly disappearing. It’s not a recent occurrence, it seems to have been happening for many years. I think back to before I was even born when prayer was banished from schools. Or more recently when the actions of one sick individual cause many Americans to try and infringe on a person’s right to own a gun either for recreational use or for protection. Or when a pastor is asked to close an inauguration ceremony, yet has to decline because his views differ from those in power. Americans cry for diversity, yet shun those who hold beliefs or morals different than their own. Tolerance, they say, but only for people who hold to the same liberal views we do.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to this point, or frankly how we can make progress away from it, but it just seems that we’re no longer the “land of the free.”
I imagine more posts will come from this, but I just had to get this out there. Feel free to discuss with me, you can find me on Twitter.