Big brother

I'm beginning to worry about where America is headed. As an older citizen, I value my rights and freedom in this country, a democracy. My concern is that sometimes our government can look at our private mail without a warrant, listen in on our phone conversations, track us through the Internet, burst into my house any time, day or night, and not only give me a speeding ticket, but also search my vehicle. I have nothing to hide, but that is not the problem. My rights are being violated. Generally, all of the aforementioned is in the guise of Big Brother is protecting me. Not too many years ago, we thought a country such as the Soviet Union, with its KGB secret police, could do those things. We believed it was wrong because we didn't do it. We were the good guys and they were the bad guys. It seems to me if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. It's like a crack in the sidewalk, it only gets wider. As Alexis de Tocqueville said in Democracy in America, too much power can lead to tyranny. I wonder how much longer I can express my freedom of speech to the people before some parts of this right are taken away. Richard P. Stoetzer, Southampton - Courier Post, February 6, 2007