The (Consequences) of Our Best Ideas

The power that the Patriot Act allows the government to yield is unnecessary to achieve the means it sets out to accomplish. For example, the pieces of the law that allow agents access to library records is completely bogus. The possibility of abuse of this law is far greater than it's ability to do good. Rather than actually taking a hard look at the consequences of our best idea- being national security- pride and patriotism or shaming others for lack thereof in questioning this law has brought us to hastily procured legislation that restrict basic freedoms set in our Constitution. 

The threat lies in the fact that most common citizens, let alone the Senate or House members, don't understand its provisions whether they be positive or negative. Rather than attempt to improve international relations thus making those suspected of terrorism less inclined to hate us on principle, we relinquish our freedoms from ourselves by letting the law go as it stands now without further dissection. I believe with the amount of corruption within the government and the judicial system, individual courts or FBI agents with NSLs should not be able to pick and choose who has their Constitutional rights taken away based on suspicion like what types of books they like to read. 

I am not saying in any way that we should not investigate possible terror plots, but the current standing of the Patriot Act puts the basic everyday rights of citizens in jeopardy when they are not the ones who should be suspected of terrorism. The position of, "well if you're doing nothing wrong then it shouldn't matter, right?" grinds my gears especially. So basically, you're not religious so you shouldn't have the right to practice any religion you want anyway. We all think you're guilty, so you don't need a fair trial anyway, right?