Privacy

A lot of people have been talking about transparency in government here lately. So one of the things I have been watching these first 100 days is the concept of transparency in government in action and the conclusion I have come to, so far, is that transparency in government seems to prove that there is no constitutional right to privacy.

The right to privacy, at least in this country, has always been an illusion. There is no actual mention of a right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution. Over the years, some Supreme Court Justices have used certain ammendments to the constitution to infer the right to privacy through an expectation of privacy in cases of doctor/patient confidentiality, lawyer/client privilege, husband/wife relationships and in some cases Alcoholics Anonymous group meetings. But as of yet, individuals have no right to privacy.

Think about it. A constitutional right to privacy would effectively put an end to the papparazzi. One would think, George Clooney would be leading Hollywood to amend the constitution. Celebrities seem to be very vocal about their political beliefs, yet they prefer to complain than support obvious choices. I do hope they actually vote.

Today we see transparency in government at work in the recently released torture memos. I think some of the uproar over these memos is unnecessary. I've known about waterboarding being used at Guantanamo for at least a couple of years now, thanks to the media. I'm sure our enemies have known about it at least as long. If they're going to use that information as propoganda against us, I'm sure they were using it long before now.

What disturbs me in all this discussion of the torture memos is that some people want to go after the people that authorized the use of torture. I wish the President had not flip-flopped on this issue, but stood his ground against doing such a thing.
The last thing our Congress needs to be doing right now, is dealing with the past. We need them to deal with the present. Congressional hearings on who knew what when will not balance the budget.

Congressional hearings on who knew what when will effectively put an end to some people's privacy. If you put an end to their privacy, how long will it take for you to decide to do away with my privacy?

Just because I am an average citizen who enjoys a modicum of privacy, due in large part to the fact that nobody particularly knows or cares who I am, it does not mean that I have a right to that privacy. My privacy can be taken away at any time the media or the government so chooses.

Congressional hearings take up a lot of time and distract our elected officials from getting a lot of other work done. What's done is done. We can't untorture anybody. We are at war. The President of The United States is our elected Commander-in-Chief. He has to make the tough decisions. He had lawyers advising him on the legality of everything our side did to the other side. Now I'm not sure, but I would think that the President of the United States would have the best legal minds in our country as his legal advisors. If they said it was legal, which apparently they did, then I trust they looked at every legal loophole and have the President's back covered. That's their job.

What we did may well be immoral, but it was not illegal. We are at war. The other side isn't worried about what they do to their prisoners of war. They chop off people's heads and televise it. I think we have a way to go before we sink to their level.

I'm in favor of walking away from investigating the torture memos any further. We have a new Commander-in-Chief already. He has different legal advisors I'm sure. So it would seem that every one involved in the upper level management positions, who approved of the enhanced methods of interrogation, no longer have their jobs.

Do we really want to spend our money investigating this any further? I mean, we are the ones, that pay the taxes, that pay the salaries of the congressmen and women who will be conducting the hearings. Do we have money in the budget for that? I wonder which departments budget such hearings would be listed under?

Transparency in government is all well and good, but I would much prefer to have a constitutional right to privacy. Thank you.

Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

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