HOMELAND SECURITY
Public now knows, but so do likely terrorists
This revelation that the NSA has been snooping on U.S. citizens for years — to keep things like the Boston bombing from happening — brings to mind some good and some bad.
The good is that the naive public has become aware of the intrusiveness of their government.
The bad is that any terrorist cell now knows that they must use other methods of communicating their plans to avoid detection.
Perhaps this explains the increased sales of postage stamps and carrier pigeons.
LEN CAYCE, LAWRENCEVILLE
Coverage understates NSA snooping threat
Regarding the NSA’s activities, they tend to get sanitized with techno-talk. Terms such as “metadata” and “data mining” tend to do nothing more for most of us than to put makeup on the pig.
Let me offer an analogy: If the data collected by the NSA was gathered manually, it would require the assignment of a government agent to every man, woman and child in the U.S. who owned a hard line or a cell phone, to manually record the data on their phone calls.
If this doesn’t bring home how heinous the activity of the NSA is, nothing will.
BRIAN WILSON, ATLANTA
SCOUTING
Church pullouts betray short-sighted attitudes
As a former member of the Southern Baptist church, I read with dismay of the decision by some local churches to deny sponsorship of Boy Scouts of America troops (“Megachurch cuts ties to Boy Scouts,” Metro, June 8). It may be very likely a few troop members are gay, but they should not be harassed because of their sexuality.
In rural South Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s, my father was a Scout leader and wanted either the local Baptist or Methodist church to sponsor a troop in our community. He showed an informational film about Scouting; but as soon as these ministers saw young Boy Scouts dancing with girls at a social outing, they pulled their sponsorship. Dancing was forbidden.
The community was so small, he had no where else to turn for support, so the Scout troop disbanded even before it was organized. Since then, I have realized how short-sighted some church groups can be. This was an opportunity to influence behavior and lead by example, but these groups turned their backs.
Let’s hope other worthwhile organizations pick up the gauntlet.
ABIGAIL PILGER, DUNWOODY
