OpEd Presentation: “Snowden is not MLK” By Daniel Foster

1. OpEd Presentation: “Snowden is not MLK” By Daniel Foster Presentation by Bianca Bryant, Elizabeth Garcia, Ruby Kerwin, and Liz Reckart

2. Vocab It is a testament both to the complexity of the political and legal questions surrounding the NSA’s PRISM program, and to the mixture of intellectual honesty and political opportunism characterizing those debating them, that one cannot accurately extrapolate from a person’s views on the program his views on Edward Snowden, the low-level government contractor who exposed it. Speaking broadly, “establishment” Democrats and Republicans alike tendto be apologists for the program, and to think Snowden deserves prosecution for compromising it. By contrast, libertarians left and right tend to be outraged by the program, and think Snowden a hero for showing it the light of day. To my mind, there is no reason at this point to think of Snowden as a “whistleblower,” as so many are calling him, since whistleblowing means exposing actual malfeasance, not merely the unwisdom of a duly enacted policy. Nor is it clear that his leak of classified information is an act of “civil disobedience,” at least not if that phrase still means what it did when its most consequentialpractitioner, Martin Luther King Jr., practiced it.

3. Vocab Continued... In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written mostly in the margins of a newspaper, King laid out his four-step process for conducting acts of nonviolent civil disobedience: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.” The case that there was racial injustice in Alabama in 1963 was both obvious and overwhelming. By contrast, did the information to which Snowden was privy obviously and overwhelmingly point to injustice? Is the injustice of the monitoring program so gross that it morally compelled Snowden to break his oaths, and the law, to reveal it? King’s second step requires “negotiation” with the perpetrators, or at least the enablers, of the injustice in question. In King’s case, his Southern Christian Leadership Conference agreed to put a moratorium on all demonstrations inBirmingham when merchants agreed to take down “humiliating” racial signs from places of business. Before he went to the press, did Snowden first raise his concerns with PRISM to his superiors at Booz Allen Hamilton? Did he work through official channels to have PRISM declassified, even while reserving the right to resort to unofficial channels should this prove impossible?

4. Vocab Continued... They asked themselves, “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” and “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” Did Snowden undertake a similar self-appraisal? That’s highly unclear, especially since, instead of submitting to the law, Snowden fled the country to escape it. The necessity of submission to the law, of accepting punishment for an act of resistance, is perhaps the area of civil-disobedience doctrine most fraught with debate. But canonical civil resisters such as King and Gandhi certainly thought it was necessary. And in the essay that started it all, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” The recognition that the moral justifiability of disobeying a law is not legally exculpatory is thus a major part of what makes civil disobedience itself morally legitimate. Or as Erwin Griswold, Nixon-era solicitor general and former dean of Harvard Law School, said of the prosecution of conscientious draft-dodgers in the Vietnam era: “[It] is of the essence of law . . . that it is equally applied to all, that it binds all alike, irrespective of personal motive. For this reason, one who contemplates civil disobedience out of moralconviction should not be surprised and must not be bitter if a criminal conviction ensues. And he must accept the fact that organized society cannot endure on any other basis.”

5. Vocab Continued... Nothing about Snowden’s behavior leading up to and following the leak suggests that he understands (a) the gravity of his action or (b) the fact that civil disobedience works — and makes sense — only when it is embedded in a broader respect and concern for the rule of law. There is a world in which, unsatisfied with their response, he then resigned from Booz, relinquished his security clearance, hired counsel, and took legal action to have PRISM declassified, at the same time he approached Congress, the White House, and the courts with his concerns. There is a world in which, being stonewalled in each of these attempts, he turned over information regarding PRISM to Glenn Greenwald, but on an encrypted file to which only Snowden knew the key. There is a world in which he used this “direct action” to generate King-style “tension” and spur a return to negotiation with government officials. And there is a world in which, stymied, threatened with reprisal, and having exhausted all lawful methods, Snowden sent Glenn Greenwald the password to the encrypted file and awaited arrest. In that world, Snowden would have all the hallmarks of a noble civil resister.

6. Diction • Repetition: • “obviously and overwhelmingly” • the repetition of these words places emphasis on them and strengthens his argument • Register: • Professional/Intelligent/Formal • Usage of elevated and educated words • “extrapolate” and “malfeasance”

7. Diction Continued... • Allusion: • “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”: A letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. from a jail cell that defined a strategy for nonviolent resistance to racism. He stated that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. • Racial injustice in Alabama in 1963: Alabama was extremely segregated and African Americans had less economic, political and social opportunities as whites did • Demonstrations in Birmingham: a series of nonviolent demonstrations in protest to the racial injustices in Birmingham • Southern Christian Leadership Conference: African American civil rights organization, MLK was its first president

8. Diction Continued... • Allusion Continued... • Gandhi: Mahatma Gandhi was the primary leader of India's independence movement and also the architect of a form of civil disobedience that would influence the world. • Martin Luther King Jr.: He was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement and was best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. • The essay that started it all (Civil Disobedience): an essay by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1849. • Henry David Thoreau: American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, tax resister, and leading transcendentalist.

9. Diction Continued... • Analogy • Martin Luther King Jr. • The author uses the analogy of MLK Jr. and Snowden to show that Snowden’s actions of exposing the PRISM program were not completely justified and the way in which he exposed the program was wrong. • “King writes that Birmingham was ‘probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States’ with a long record of legal discrimination and violent intimidation of blacks. By contrast, did the information to which Snowden was privy obviously and overwhelmingly point to injustice?”

10. Tone • Condescending- • “Edward Snowden, the low-level government contractor who exposed it”. • Straightforward - • “But you can count me in a third group, those who find PRISM disturbing but aren’t ready to crown Snowden”. • Critical - • “Nothing about Snowden’s behavior … suggests that he understands [a)] the gravity of his action” • Censorious - • “instead of submitting the law, Snowden fled the country to escape it”.

11. PAPA Square

12. PAPA Square Continued…

13. Sentence Structure • Repetition: • “This program may be unwise, it may be dangerous, it may be immoral, and it may unwise declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.” • “obviously and overwhelmingly” • “There is a world in which…” • Parallel structure: Uses parallel structure when contrasting the establishment Democrats and Republicans to the libertarians. (antithesis) • Rhetorical questions • “Is the injustice of the monitoring program so gross that is morally compelled Snowden to break his oaths, and the law, to reveal it?” • Trying to encourage the reader to think about these specific ideas • Tries to create dissonance between Snowden and MLK

14. Overall Structure • Clear beginning, middle, and end: • Begins with background information about the topic at hand and author’s stance on said topic • “It is a testament both to the complexity of the political and legal questions surrounding the NSA’s PRISM program, and to the mixture of intellectual honesty and political opportunism characterizing those debating them, that one cannot accurately extrapolate from a person’s views on the program his views on Edward Snowden, the low-level government contractor who exposed it.” • “But you can count me in a third group, those who find PRISM disturbing but aren’t ready to crown Snowden”

15. Overall Structure Continued... • The introduction of MLK and the key comparison starts in the middle of the article • “Nor is it clear that his leak of classified information is an act of ‘civil disobedience,’ at least not if that phrase still means what it did when its most consequential practitioner, Martin Luther King Jr., practiced it.” • “In his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’...King laid out his four-step process for conducting acts of nonviolent civil disobedience: ‘collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.’ • Did Snowden’s actions meet the first of these criteria?”

16. Overall Structure Continued... • Ends with an alternate scenario in a different “world”-- • See last paragraph of article • “In that world, Snowden would have all the hallmarks of a noble civil resister.” • Ends on a note of uncertainty • Thesis is in the beginning of the article: • “But you can count me in a third group, those who find PRISM disturbing but aren’t ready to crown Snowden.” • Directly states his opinion on the issue and explains what the article will be written about. • At the end of the article, we as readers learn that the author believes there was a better way to expose the PRISM Program. He states this “better” way in the last paragraph of the article.

17. Discussion Questions • How do you think Snowden’s actions influenced the opinions of the American people and people all over the world about the US government? • Does Foster's allusions and analogies concerning Martin Luther King Jr.'s plan for civil disobedience work effectively or ineffectively to prove his point? Why or why not?

18. Discussion Questions Continued... • In light of the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington and recent events regarding Snowden, CNN published an article called “Would the government have spied on MLK Jr. Today?” in which the author wrote: “As the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1963March on Washington and the anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech -- arguably one of the most important speeches of the 20th century -- few are also remembering that the historic civil rights leader was once under heavy surveillance by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.” Would Martin Luther King Jr. agree with Foster had he known that he was under surveillance?