Opinion : The Right to What Privacy

Living today sometimes is a weird experience.

When we were first married, we bought a house that sat right on main street in Independence,  There was a postage stamp yard. 

Occasionally we'd hear comments from people that we knew that would say, "I drove past the other day, and saw your house lit up like a Christmas tree!" or the phone would ring at 7:30 a.m. and someone that I didn't know would inform me that my children were outside in the street, usually it was some older gal, and I'd play along while counting noses and then say, no I just checked, all of my children are in the house....but she'd insist that they weren't! So what's a person to do?  I'd thank her profusely for the lecture on keeping my children safe and chalk it up to living on main street.

Then there were nosey neighbors that  felt the need to inform me when something wasn't like they thought it should be at our house. Our car wasn't parked in the right parking space, or the neighbor just mowed so your lawn then looked unkept so the hints would come that maybe you should mow again this week.

Occasionally we'd luck out and get an elderly neighbor that was just smitten with our family and they'd request that we have the children play at their house."Tell them to come and play in our driveway when we're home so we can watch them!"  they'd say.

So then even though we didn't know them so well, we'd keep an eye out for them.  We noticed that they'd keep a light on at night so the gentleman could see to take care of his ailing wife...little things like that.

Fast forward a mere 15 years to where we are today.

We live in the country, and I can't see a neighbor from my living room window, and I love it.  The funny part is that we have the best neighbors we've ever had...all four of 'em!

In the winter time, it's probably as close as you could ever get to being cut off from civilization, and at times roughing it. Sometime you hope for a foot of snow just so everyone is snowed in and has to stay home, life just seems to get so hectic.

So on those rare occasions when we get a chance to watch the news in the evening, I am sometimes amazed and bothered by the shot of Vinton I can see from a camera mounted on a building downtown. Sometimes you see a car drive by on the news. That's kind of cool, but creepy. 

When choosing a parking space in that area, I always think, "If I park here, someone is always watching the car for me." But if I park here, someone is always watching me park my car, get out of my car and walk to my destination..." I've never had a big brother, but I know someone's big brother is watching and I really don't like it!

So back to living in the country....there is NO privacy anymore.

Search your name on the Internet, everything except what you ate for breakfast is out there.

Just get on Google Earth!

I was pondering the other day how my dad would NEVER give out his social security number.  Now as his guardian I am forced to give it out for medical care...if he was aware of that, I'd be in SO much trouble!  I remember when he went to get his drivers license years ago, they made the mistake of asking for his social security number...not a good move on their part. He launched into the whole, "I don't have to give it out, it says right here on the card, not to give it out!" Sure enough, it USED to say that on the old cards.

So what does privacy mean anymore? 

I think about celebrities, and how they don't have any, now if you go to the store and someone takes your picture and throws it on the Internet, it's somehow okay, because you are in public so therefore you have no privacy.

So then I want to know, what is the privacy we have a right to?

And now that I've shared my private thoughts on the subject, I will now post this on the Website for everyone in the world to read....sigh.