The Boston University Daily Free Press is foolish to suggest that not all classified government information should be made public. If this information makes our government look bad, then our government did something wrong. Moreover, if this information is dangerous to our nation, itâ脛么s because citizens will respond in a radical way, which they should.
The Free Press wrote, “What our leaders say behind closed doors … does not need to be public knowledge.” Does this include what leaders say that can substantially alter the trajectory of our nation, whether it betters or worsens the state that we live in? This is not the definition of a democracy, where governing power is derived from a nationâ脛么s citizens. When a nationâ脛么s leaders withhold information from the citizens who elected them, the nation cannot be a democracy because these leaders have broken a contract with those who put them in power. Leaders of a democratic nation cannot betray its citizens by making decisions in private without the consent of the populace.
Now that WikiLeaks did its job by informing the nation, citizens must do their part by informing the government that they want change, that they want their voice back. This means petitions, protests, re-establishing democracy from the ground up.
I believe we must revisit our history books to see that WikiLeaks needs to be doing its job right now. I donâ脛么t want another Watergate. Yes, these were “out-of-context” tapes, but enough pressure was put on Richard Nixon, and he resigned. I suspect something similar will happen again, and I pray that our citizens and WikiLeaks wonâ脛么t be silenced as we demand democracyâ脛么s return.
