Safety vs. Privacy?

I read the article, Watching You by Patricia Smith in the New York Times Upfront Magazine. This article explained how the government is always watching, searching, and tracking you down. There are surveillance cameras everywhere. They also have body searches at airports. The government is now tracking what phone numbers you call from you phones. The amount of security has gone up sufficiently since the attack on September 11, 2001. People have different opinions about this.

Some people believe that what the government is doing is not saving our lives but destroying our privacy. The article states, "The idea of a right to privacy comes from the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects against 'unreasonable searches and seizures.'" Some people want some privacy and others just want to stick to the rules of the constitution.

Others would rather have their lives saved than to have a sense of privacy. Rob Johnson age 21 in Chicago states in the article "I'd rather have them track who we're talking to if it saves American lives. I think it is OK for them to be that invasive." Many other people think similarly to Johnson. They would like to live and have America live and grow than have it die out from terrorist attacks. They do not mind going against the Constitution.

I am more in-between these two views. As I would like to have privacy and not have everything I do involve the government, I would also want so save lives of many innocent people. There are too many killings for no apparent reason, unless it was "to have fun." But the government doesn't need to know who we are dating or what we are having for dinner. I like and understand the idea of trying to save lives but maybe they should just back off a bit. Enough is enough.

The government is poking their heads around everybody's business, trying to keep the country safe. But what happens when they go too far? When it starts to get private?