Social Action Project Problem Statements(Parts A&B)

Part A-On June 17, 2013, Edward Snowden alerted the world to what the United States organization known as the NSA was perpetrating; the simultaneous surveillance of multiple entities across the world in search for a terrorist threat. The reading of emails, texts, posts, Facebook updates, phone calls, everything, all done for the purpose of national security. The defilement of the Fourth Amendment, created for the defense of one's privacy and the inability for the government to gain evidence illegally, while the Supreme Court proceeded to call the act constitutional because of a ruling in 1979.

To some, this is acceptable. National security should be a nation's prime focus, and the Supreme Court did declare this acceptable. This is a price we must pay for our safety and our protection.

To others, it is a breach of freedom and must be destroyed. To forsake the Constitution and ignore those laws put in place by our founding fathers is an action considered dishonorable and wrong. Groups such as the ACLU and millions of independent Americans protest these actions, pushing for Congressional laws and restrictions, urging presidential action. They attempt to keep the fight precipitated by Snowden's betrayal going, reminding people of this problem.

As with any political issues, the main problem is the short term memory of the public. People forget great problems rather quickly and, unless continually reminded by the media, cease to pursue the completion of the original goal. With the case of this serious breach of our human rights, we need to keep the knowledge and movement alive because if this heinous crime falls into anonymity, or rights as a whole will remain in a state of peril.

Part B-In our social action project my group is discussing the issue of government surveillance and the abuse of their power provided. Our ethical goal would be to raise the public’s awareness so they can monitor what information they provide of themselves. The significance of doing this will limit the availability of the governments access to the person lives of the individuals and keep their private life private. Making people aware of the government surveillance will cause them to get involved and possibly starting a change reaction letting the awareness to rise quicker. We would like to reach the political goal of restricting the access of the government to their citizen’s personal life. If possible we could limit the access of personal information of the government by passing a potential law making it illegal for the government to access certain information. The significance of this would be that of allowing citizens to live a private lifestyle keeping personal things personal.