The Grinch Who Invented Christmas

I am sure you have heard the news about Wikileaks and Julian Assange swirling around the blogosphere like a category 5 hurricane.

The funny part about is that you can ask people questions about Wikileaks or Assange and they tend to look at you with that quizzical look of confusion. Turns out they don't really know what is going on or how they feel.

I want to deliver a message that will hopefully be thought about. Julian Assange may be a mercenary in the journalism world, but Wikileaks' sacrifice of human life and their reputations is a necessary casualty for the American public.

Wikileaks is a good model for journalism, but Assange shouldn't be sought after as a figure head. His 60 Minutes interview showcased a calloused personality and lack of remorse. I say that Assange is hardened because he does not have a place to call home.

He is originally from Australia, therefore, making it easy to watch other countries sink or swim. Most Americans would defend their home country when attacked (physically or verbally), Assange on the other hand would have no feeling of patriotism towards any country for that matter.

Assange is a questionable figure but his website is something worthy of talking about. In other words, Wikileaks and Assange judgements should be viewed separate from each other. The all-telling site has paved new ground for a more transparent government.

American citizens regularly complain about the government and what they are hiding. If you randomly pick someone off of the street and ask them what they think of the government I would be willing to put $10 on the fact that a four letter expletive might be in their response.

Truth is we, as humans, want to know what's happening in the world. Look at North Africa (Egypt and Libya). Citizens want a hand in decision making, or at the very least want to know what decisions are being made. Wikileaks has recently given the American people insight into our government officials' decisions.

This new found transparency is a direct result of whistleblowers around the globe. Without sacrifices, human or reputational, important information will never be heard. What type of information you ask? The American public wouldn't know about our own government slaughtering people in the streets from a helicopter if it weren't for Wikileaks. We would be in the dark with what is happening in the middle east and who the big players are.

Living life in ignorance is not bliss. It is an easy way of hiding the truth and not owning up to mistakes. Morally weak and soulless people can be the associated with that stupid cliché. Ignorance and bliss is like catnip for the scared. Man up! This is the real world.

Cheers to those who face the truth and deal with it. Those should be the leaders of our world.

Whistleblowers are putting their lives on the line for information and should be encouraged to do so in the future. We as the American public elect officials to inform us about our endeavors and mistakes as a country, not to keep us in the dark and pat our backs.

We elected officials because we trusted them to inform us about our achievements as well as our faults. I would want to know the way my family member died. It may be hard to swallow but I certainly don't want some bullshit lie about heroics.

My brain is capable of telling me what is important and what isn't. I can obviously tell the difference between a helicopter mowing people down with bullets the size of rhino horns versus Hilary Clinton's sophomoric gossip about her views on world leaders.

Mrs. Clinton, I wonder what people say about you and your truthful husband? That would be a worthy leak. I digress.

Without people like Bradley Manning the American public would be unaware of the atrocities that are taking place in the Middle East. Arguments have surfaced that Wikileaks endangers certain people, like Manning. To be honest, that is a necessary risk in knowing the truth.

Redacting names should be left to Assange, but calling Wikileaks a dangerous website is outrageous. The only problem that I foresee regarding Wikileaks is the continuation of secret information. People aren't stupid, whistleblowers have witnessed what has happened to previous sources. The threat of being imprisoned or even killed may scare future sources away.

With that being said, I still stand firm saying that these possible risks should be ignored. Information is what is important. For instance, American propaganda may call a source of Wikileaks a traitor, but in the future that same source may be regarded as a hero. History can change perception.

Whistleblowers of the past have put their lives on the line to release information. Philip Agee, Daniel Ellsberg, and Mordechei Vanunu have suffered from releasing government secretes. All three former whistleblowers agree that Assange will not regret Wikileaks.

Well, duh! Assange won't regret Wikileaks because he knows it's revolutionary. The site is golden! The CEO? Not so much. He is sneaky, I will give him that.

Separating Assange from Wikileaks, the site may very well be the modern day Robin Hood. It steals from the rich and informative and releases the riches through a public website. Each of the former whistleblowers were immediately condemned for what they had released, but since time has gone on, the American public has become more thankful.

Nixon responded by Agee's leak of information with, "Let's get that son of a bitch to jail." Turns out the people who despise the leaking of secrets tend to have something to hide. I wonder what Mr. Nixon would have to say about that.

Wikileaks could potentially be the new and ongoing version of Deep Throat. If the site had been leaking information earlier and whistleblowers had sacked up and said something about WMD, then maybe the U.S. wouldn't be fighting a useless war.

Children of the Corn, Wikileaks has transformed journalism for good.

Naysayers say that Wikileaks endangers innocent people. I say that those people aren't so innocent and should be held accountable for what they say. Generally when people release information and then immediately hide it, it normally affirms that something they said is dirty. Yes, people do get hurt for releasing information, but the outcome is worth it. We should support a transparent government and the whistleblowers that deliver the information.

Some of you may be confused with my support of Wikileaks and clear disdain for Assange. I would love to oblige this lingering question.

Assange calls himself a journalist. No. Wikileaks is journalism. Assange is a headhunter who feels no remorse towards his sources. Well then, what is the difference between his site and himself? Wikileaks is releasing information that is useful and creating more of an open government, where Assange is like a puppeteer controlling the destruction. His constant disregard for redacting names could lead to whistleblowers thinking twice about leaking information.

It's ironic that the founder of Wikileaks directly threatens the existence of his own creation.

Be careful Mr. Assange, leaders before you have done the same thing and have gone down in flames leaving their ideas in the past, only to be forgotten.

Plain and simple, no one really knows who Assange is and what his reasons are. He is permanently hidden in secrecy. This is strange since his job is exposing secrets and telling the world the real truth. How do I know this? Julian Assange decided to tell the world of innocence the biggest secret of all. The first time Assange released any information that he, Julian Assange, knew was the truth about Santa Claus.

It doesn't matter who you are, you don't screw around when it comes to Saint Nick. That is low on every human level. I would say releasing information like that is murdering a child's dream. I bet you could ask any adult about Kris Kringle and they would remember the exact time they found out that he wasn't real. Overall, not cool. Thanks Julian for being an awesome guy!

Wikileaks is a revolutionary idea that has been added to the journalism world. Granted it needs some perfection (cough cough, Julian Assange), but it has the ability to unite whistleblowers from every country and open the possibility for a better communicating world. Sure, danger does come along with communication and information, but without knowing information we would truly embody the cliché: ignorance is bliss.

Some may argue that living in bliss is completely reasonable, then I would argue the point of living at all. At this point, the disbelievers and haters of Wikileaks should give it another chance and look at the pure journalism.

Wikileaks is the journalistic future and my best advice is to either like it or get used to it. Support the whistleblowers because their sacrifice is paramount in providing useful information. Knowing the truth is worth the lives who are willing to tell it.

Assange can swallow his own poison pill, Wikileaks is here to stay. Its sacrifice of people and reputations is vital to the American public in transforming the government into a more transparent organization.