Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “terrorism” as “the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.”

With all of the extreme surveillance techniques being used by the National Security Agency, I can’t help but notice that our country is being successfully coerced out of fear.

In recent news, the NSA admitted to some of their analysts willfully violating their own questionable protocol by going outside of the “boundaries” presented to them by the agency.

Stories like these suggest that the surveillance techniques have no true oversight and can only get worse as terrorists get around surveillance or find new ways to communicate and strike.

As terrorists adapt and some Americans willfully sacrifice their ideals set up by the Constitution in order to protect themselves from these threats, there will soon be no more ideals to sacrifice.

Many Americans are happy to give up their privacy for security simply because they’ve done nothing wrong and there would be no reason for the government to seize them. They are complacent and feel that these techniques do not affect them at all.

Although this may be true right now, 50 years down the road, citizens may find that what was once deemed innocent is now deemed “terrorist activity.”

There is no doubt that terrorists are real and that America is a major target for many of these groups. However, giving up American freedoms in order to stop them not going to work and gives them permission to affect American policy, and, in a way, amend the Constitution.