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I love and appreciate my right to privacy as much as any American does. But I also love and appreciate efforts to secure our nation from terrorism.

I’m talking, of course, about the news that the National Security Agency’s need to collect telephone records of millions of U.S. citizens. Republicans are upset, but they aren’t the only ones. A lot of people feel violated and are worried that this is another move toward America becoming a police state. Even Sybil reminded me that when the Bush Administration was accused of spying on Americans, we were irate then and we should be now.

But I have a different take on it. No big surprise there, right?

We’re fighting a brand new kind of terrorism. The enemy may not be a country or even a group. Now as the last few incidents of terror have shown us, our enemy can be anyone, anywhere. So, all bets are off and all is fair—well, almost all.

My point is the world has drastically changed since 9/11 and we’ve had to get used to a lot of things we never thought we’d be able to do. Like strange TSA workers practically getting  to second base with me at the airports. That’s  not fun at all, but I’ll take it because I know that they’re looking out for the greater good of all of us. I also would think people who love guns would be willing to sacrifice whatever they need to for stricter gun control laws.

I’m one of those people who assumed a long time ago that anything we texted and even emailed was going somewhere that could be retrieved by someone at some point, even after it was deleted. Why in the name of Kwame Kilpatrick is anyone still tweeting, texting  or even saying ANYTHING that could be incriminating is a mystery to me. Maybe we all needed a wake up to call like this to realize that we are sharing way too much and now that we know, let’s all dial it back notch.

Just like Verizon and the rest (because you know Verizon isn’t the only one) finally said, I can’t look at any more naked pictures, nasty texts or overhear any more freaky conversations.

If you just HAVE to say something you KNOW you shouldn’t say or do, get in your car and drive to a pay phone. By the time you find one, either you won’t be in the mood any more or you’ll realize that it was just wrong.

I pray we will return to the days when the government will no longer have to take these extra methods to protect us and that we will no longer have to choose any of our liberties over security. But if we have to …  I choose security. You?