When the Government Decided I Was a Terrorist

    What do you, the average American citizen, actually know about government intelligence agencies? Go ahead, think about it....I'll give you a minute.....Still thinking?.....Thought of anything yet?....No?...Exactly! The average American knows close to nothing about these agencies that appear to be shrouded in secrecy, which is exactly how they want it to be. The citizen knows one thing for sure, the government is a super-secret security machine, that does a rather good job of keeping its own people in the dark! For years these agencies have been yanking around US citizens. These agencies can one day decide that you are a suspicious character. They can then go on to add you to a list of "specially designated rationals and blocked persons", freeze and or empty your bank account, and the kicker, they won't even mention a word of all these things to you! "It seems odd to me that this top-secret office of Financial Intelligence somehow can’t manage to lay hands on the money it snatched from me, but what do I know? I’m just a citizen." The united states is a country. A country is made by a nation, a nation is made by the republic, the republic is made by its people, and the people are made up by everyday citizens like you and I.  These agencies are taking advantage of and disrupting the lives of many American citizens. For the people by the people? Ah huh, right,   stop abusing your people! 
         The article "When the Government decided I was a Terrorist" by Ann Jones is a riot! It is a reasonably long article, but she has just the right mix of humor, facts, and genuine puzzlement to keep me interested. Ann relies on ethos and pathos mostly throughout her article. She expresses her shock, bewilderment, annoyance, and suspicion perfectly to the reader! "I don’t know how it happened. Or even, really, what happened. Or what it means. So I’ve got no point — only a lot of anxiety. I usually write about the problems of the world, but now I’ve got one of my own. They evidently think I’m a terrorist." I chuckled once or twice; "The bank wasn’t actually holding up the delivery of the money. The funds had, in fact, left my account weeks before, along with a wire transfer fee. The responsible party was OFAC. Oh what? I wondered. OFAC. It rhymes with Oh-Tack, but you’ve got to watch how you pronounce it. Speak carelessly and the name sounds like just what you might say upon learning that you’ve been sucked into the ultimate top-secret bureaucratic sinkhole. It turns out, the bank informs me, that OFAC is a division of the U.S. Treasury Department that “reviews” transactions." This article is a chilling reality check, but it is also a humorous portrayal of how government agencies are taking advantage of the people. 


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