The fact that one man and a group of supporters stood up against the most powerful elements in the world in order to defend our freedom is not something that needed to be sensationalized or otherwise embellished. And while there are those who want to demonize Snowden, I say with more confidence than I have said about anything else I know about life, history will make him a great hero. – That is, as long as we follow his lead. Because if we if we allow the government into the most private rooms of our homes and our minds, then Orwell’s terrible vision will have coalesced around us. As you recall, it was the job of Winston Smith himself to be part of the team that rewrote

About 30 months ago, I left Arizona after having lived there more than half my life. I had grown up in Racine, Wisconsin, and when I left for Arizona to go to graduate school, I had just turned 26.  A marriage, a divorce, and a couple careers later I was 55; my work-life was changing and my father’s health was failing. The decision to move back to Racine was made easier through a series of ever-longer visits back “home,” to the same house I grew up in, the nearby Great Lake, the change of seasons, the mix of industry and farming, and the community that somehow still knew me. Twenty years ago, in conversation with  Karen P______, an AA friend, I heard some words that