Somebody Has to Say It: Wake Up, America!

All right, Guys.  So maybe I just need to vent.  Maybe I’ve sat back and watched things going on for too long and felt it’s time to step up to the plate.  Or maybe I’m just really seeing it as my duty as an American, to help open some eyes to what’s really going on.

As you may or may not know, I’m a very active member within the Reddit community.  If you’ve not heard of reddit, I suggest you go check it out pronto; it’s amazing.   

There are a variety of topics that you can find on their website, and one of the biggest topics would have to be about SOPA, also known as The “Stop Online Piracy Act” or as I like to call it, “The way the government is taking away everything we love and get enjoyment from.”

I could be alone in that last statement. But I don’t necessarily think that’s true.  Do you like uploading videos of your cute kid dancing to songs on the radio?  Or maybe your baby gets excited over a particular tv show or movie star.  That’s golden, right? You like to upload it so your family and friends can see it, and hey, occasionally those videos go viral.

And what about all of you teenagers out there who like to link your favorite songs to Facebook?  Whether it’s from youtube, or Tumblr, or some other media website, you enjoy sharing your taste in music with your friends, right?  Heck, you may even just post songs to show what mood you’re in.

Well, guess what? If SOPA passes, you could be in really big trouble for doing any of the above.

I understand that the ‘government’ wants to try to protect America and what not.  They want to make sure that counterfeit drugs are not making their way into America.  They want to stop the illegal movie downloads and music sharing, etcetera, etcetera.

But what I don’t think that they realize, is that they’re basically trying to take away our freedom of expression, and everything else that we hold dear.  Then again, these could be my own opinions, and that’s fine.  I live in America.  I am allowed to do that.

But may I just point out to you, as a viewer of the December 15th hearing that aired online, half of the sentences I heard over and over again included “I’m no nerd, but this bill needs to be passed.” or “I’m not familiar with the internet, but this bill sounds like a good idea.”

Really, America? Really?  These are the people that get to make decisions about our beloved internet?  People who are as old as dirt and have no idea how to even turn on a computer have the jurisdiction to make a decision about today’s technology?  

I’m not buying this. At all.  

I’ve also been keeping up with Anonymous.  You’re all aware of the group of ‘hacktivists’, right?  Some people deem them bad, but I don’t.  I admire the fact that they will go out and try to stand up for what is right.  Do I agree with their actions on hacking credit card accounts and taking money from them? No, I do not. But I do agree with their persistence that America needs to stand up for America and prevent this SOPA thing from happening.

As you may notice today, many websites are ‘blacked out’ to show their protest against SOPA.  These sites include Google, Wikipedia, Reddit.com, and countless others who are standing up and fighting the good fight.  It would have been amazing to see Facebook involved, because in my opinion that is the biggest social network we have, and if they blacked out, eyes would be opened in an instant.

America has stood by for too long, allowing things to happen that infringe on our rights.  The rights that so many have died for just so we could have.  Are you really going to standby and allow the government to take over the internet, too?  No one technically owns the internet, but if you don’t want to have to walk on eggshells, and you don’t want to risk your internet being shut down on your personal computer because you may have accidentally done something that they (the government) did not approve of: Then wake up.  Wake up, America.

Because if they can pass this, it only leaves me with one chilling question.  What will they take control of next?