Dear Readers:
I’ve found it’s a common misconception that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.
Case in point, I rarely vote, but I frequently discuss and complain about elected officials. Not voting doesn’t take your free speech rights away. It doesn’t take your right to think away.
Perhaps someone doesn’t care for the candidates running from the two major political parties and refrains from supporting someone in an election, but does that mean they should totally isolate themselves from information on their government? Of course not.
While many talk of how the federal government is getting out of control and turning into a Big Brother-like entity, it’s the private corporations those conspiracy theorists should worry about.
Wal-Mart, Google and other retailers and Internet-based companies know more about you than you do. What do you think Kroger cards are for, saving 11 cents on a can of green beans? They’re to track the spending habits of consumers. Did you realize Google saves every search that has ever been performed on its search engine and can pinpoint the IP address from which it came? What an incredible collection of data!
Have you all been celebrating Sunshine week, a week set aside each March to promote open information in our society?
As a journalist, I definitely support the public’s right to access information, but on the other side of the coin, if information is in the sunlight, individuals, businesses and government is free to compile that information, eh?
Records and data from police reports, credit reports, property tax information, phone numbers, birth certificates and other documents could benefit many, sometimes at others’ expense.
It could be a good thing though. If data collection companies know my spending habits and advise magazine publishers and retailers of spending habits, the Mexican recipes in magazines at the checkout may be a direct result of mine and other’s poblano, chipotle and cilantro purchases at that very same checkout just weeks earlier. Scary, powerful.
Evidently, it’s baseball season already, so, sports fans, I guess you’ll have to wait one more year for the Pulse softball team.
Peace,
Bracken Mayo, Editor in Chief
