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Edward Snowden: Hero Or Traitor?

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Whenever I think of a hero I think of a person who isn’t selfish, a person who is fearless and will stand up to any wrong doing. Edward Snowden did just that. He was courageous enough to speak out about the government listening, recording and storing our private information. To the things we search on Google, our text messages and emails. The government has possibly seen it all. At the same time, Edward Snowden can be seen as a traitor to the nation. When I think of a traitor I think of a person who goes back on their word or betrays their country, and Edward Snowden did that also. He exposed that The United States of America did something that they promised they would never do, and he could have potentially put the country as a whole in harm’s …show more content…
Some think that our elected leaders should make national security decisions, not someone who acts on his own authority. The truth is that having Edward Snowden coming forward has made us a safer nation! Our leaders we elected promised transparency, and they swore to uphold the constitution. The shame is on our representatives, not on the individual who stepped forward to fulfill the promises that they violated. Edward Snowden could have just followed orders. Instead he risked his personal of him and his family’s safety to expose that our government is secretly spying on all of its own citizens. In a documentary named Citizenfour by Laura Poitras. Snowden is asked why he decided to come forward, and he simply replied “For the greater good” and then again later in the video he is asked why he has chosen to revile himself he replied “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have not done anything wrong.” He has torn down the doors for us to debate the issue openly. The government has the power to track details of every citizen’s private email, text messages, and phone calls. Because of what he did we can actually ask ourselves: Do we feel comfortable giving our government this kind of power? Should be really pay more attention and do

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