Let the government do its job and do it well.

In my last post, I addressed part of a discussion that took place in my ethics class last night. Now, I want to address the second part of that discussion. Prof. Anderson asked the class if the American people should have been more scared of big business or government involvement in the Internet before and, respectively, after September 11th. This led to discussion of the Patriot Act and the government's ability to track your behavior on the Internet. Of course, a lively debate ensued. My point was and remains the following:
In the wake of 9/11, fingers were pointed and government officials were blamed for not doing what they should have to prevent the attacks. If now, technology is in place that our government can use to help prevent and stop terrorist attacks, would it not be irresponsible for them to not do so? Sure, it would be a waste of time, and a huge controversy if the government went around flagging everyone's email accounts and other online behavior, but just as if there is reason to suspect someone of a crime, the police investigate them, if there is valid reason to suspect someone of terrorist activity, the government should do everything in its power to investigate this person. We spend all this time talking about and blogging about how candidates don't make the most of the technology available to them. Well, shouldn't we feel the same way about our government? Shouldn't we expect them to make the most of this new media available to them in order to protect us and our country? I pray that there isn't another attack on our country, but, heaven forbid, there was, I certainly hope the same people who strongly denounced the government's use of the Internet on this matter are not the same people who point their fingers, saying that the government did not do all it could to prevent it from happening.