Sunday, May 3, 2015

Patriot Act Controversy

Ryan Ke
Section 1
Week 6

The article, “The USA Patriot Act: A Sketch,” by Charles Doyle gives a brief overview of the Patriot Act enacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act was created in order to give the government more power to intercept communications and gather information. Some describe it as a way for the government to spy on their citizens.
After reading the article, I still have mixed feelings on whether or not I personally believe the Patriot Act is necessary. I think it is an extremely controversial issue because it involves tradeoffs. On one hand, the 9/11 attacks are something that I’m sure no US citizen wants to see again, and the government needs to take preventative measures to ensure a similar tragedy does not occur in the future. Unfortunately, most laws that do this also take away the freedom and security of citizens. This makes me ask, are there better ways for the government to crack down on terrorism while maintaining the rights of its citizens? I am sure this is a question that has been widely discussed, and the discussion should continue.




Here is an infographic of how much each political party agrees with the Patriot Act. While a clear minority, there is still a sizeable group that supports the law. 

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