We’ll take the Nunes memo – a carefully picked bowl of cherries if there ever was one – so long as we get the whole orchard in the bargain.

But that’s not how the system works. Proceedings of the ex-parte court set up under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act are conducted in secret for a reason – because national security is at stake.

We’ve created a system that violates a core American principle – that the people get to see and understand what their government is up to. A recent headline from The Onion, “FBI Warns Republican Memo Could Undermine Faith In Massive, Unaccountable Government Secret Agencies,” perfectly captures our discomfort with state-sanctioned spying of fellow Americans.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.