That's the key - to maintain the garden of liberty, right? This is a generational thing that we must all do continuously. We only have the rights that we protect. It doesn't matter what we say or think we have. It's not enough to believe in something; it matters what we actually defend.
Edward SnowdenActing Government officials, they said they wanted - they would be happy, they would love to put a bullet in my head, to poison me as I was returning from the grocery store, and have me die in the shower.
Edward SnowdenWe are a representative democracy. But how did we get there? We got there through direct action. And that's enshrined in our Constitution and in our values.
Edward SnowdenThe NSA routinely lies in response to congressional inquiries about the scope of surveillance in America.
Edward SnowdenIf I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as a chance to explain our motivations to a jury, it will have a deeply chilling effect on future whistleblowers working as I did to expose government abuse and overreach. It will chill speech. It will corrode the quality of our democracy.
Edward Snowden