Edward Snowden is a Hero

Is Edward Snowden, the twenty-nine-year-old N.S.A. whistle-blower who was last said to be living in Russia awaiting his fate, a hero or a traitor? He is a hero. In revealing the colossal scale of the U.S. government’s eavesdropping on Americans and other people around the world, he has performed a great public service that more than outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed. Like Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who released the Pentagon Papers, and Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who revealed the existence of Israel’s weapons program, before him, Snowden has brought to light important information that deserved to be in the public domain, while doing no lasting harm to the national security of his country.

Doubtless, many people inside the U.S. power structure—President Obama included—and some of its apologists in the media will see things differently. When Snowden told the Guardian that “nothing good” was going to happen to him, he was almost certainly right. In fleeing to Russia, he may have given his critics and wood be executioners the opportunity to subtly change the discussion and pubic perception. The National Security Agency has already referred the case to the Justice Department, and James Clapper, Obama’s director of National Intelligence, has said that Snowden’s leaks have done “huge, grave damage” to “our intelligence capabilities.”

Too often throughout history we find that what is right and what is legal are two entirely different things. To do or say nothing while conveniently pacifying our conscious comforted by our interest in "National Security", to remain silent and continue to earn a healthy 200k salary is far and away the much simpler choice. Standing up for our principals, values, and beliefs in the face of overwhelming power and resources and to still be willing to forfeit it all in the interest of what we feel is the right thing to do.... to allow our conscious and morals to guide us despite a most certain tragic or unfortunate end takes Honor, Commitment, and Courage. The willingness to stand up for what he believes is right irregardless of whether or not he's right makes him a hero in my book.