An open response to Mrs. Helen Hicks
I received the following letter from a Mrs. Helen Hicks in response to my recent USA Today column about cell phones. In the column, I had brought up concerns about the capabilities of most phones — that they can be turned into microphones to act as roving wiretaps, and that the Federal government had gotten itself the right to demand a map of your travels from your cell provider without a warrant.
Here is the entirety of Mrs. Hicks’s letter:
Subj: How STUPID you are!!!
How in the world did you get to be a writer on things that come up on the computer?? Do you think our government wants to use their expertise and their time to track a normal American citizen such as me(A 67 year old Texas (American) lady , living in Texas, minding my own business—-daily.? I think you get your kicks, trying to make ort government sound like the KGB!!! Really! If you are not doing anything—– they could care less!!! Stay focused on “The American Dream—- and Christian Morals and you sure won’t have to worry. What are you doing, that you would not like to be tracked????
Mrs. Helen Hicks
In fact, I don’t know whether the government is interested in tracking you. Then again, my column wasn’t written about you, or anyone in particular. It’s about the other people in this country who are minding their own business — business the government seems intent on sticking its nose into.
It’s a matter of privacy, Mrs. Hicks. Maybe I don’t think it’s the government’s damn business if I’m a member of the ACLU and the NRA. Maybe I don’t think it’s the government’s damn business if I subscribe to the National Review and Playboy. Maybe I don’t think it’s the government’s damn business that I own a copy of The Anarchist’s Cookbook or that I borrowed Moneyball from the library.
As for ‘getting kicks, trying to make our government sound like the KGB,’ maybe you should read the news more. I wasn’t the one who set up secret prisons, or gave the OK to torture “detainees” or to withhold their right to a fair trial. I’m not the one asserting that the President has the right to detain anyone for any reason without charge or access to counsel. If you want to accuse someone of making our government sound like the KGB, I suggest you look toward your friend from Crawford.
And rehashing the age-old and, frankly, idiotic argument of ‘If you have nothing to hide, why are you worried?’ is just sad. We all have things we keep private.
If I asked you what your favorite sexual position was, or who you fantasize about during your marital relations, I suspect you’d be offended. Then again, if you have nothing to hide, why wouldn’t you answer? How much money do you have in your bank account, Mrs. Hicks? What was the last sin you committed? What do you wash first in the shower? What did you do on your third date with your high school sweetheart? If you won’t answer, I have to assume you have something to hide.
Privacy, Mrs. Hicks. Some things are simply no one else’s business.
There’s a reason warrants require — or at least used to require — probable cause. The police and the government cannot have the right to snoop where they feel like it without good reason. I would have thought we all learned that lesson from McCarthy and Hoover, but a lot of people in power these days seem to have a tough time with the whole history thing.
I realize that as a Republican you believe in big government and intrusive government — but I don’t. I believe that nine times out of 10 it should just butt out. That my business is my own, whether in my bedroom or my bank or my office. But that’s where we differ.
Leland says:
She is partially right. There is no way Uncle Sam can monitor all of us all the time.