Hero or Traitor?

To open your mouth or not to, that is the ultimate question. When you know something that would influence millions of people do you say something to the public? Just keep it to yourself? Who knows what is the "right" answer to that question. I keep thinking if I were in the same situation as Daniel Ellsberg or Bradley Manning would I speak up like they did, or remain quiet?

When i really think about it I think I personally would want to know the deep dark secret's the government is hiding just so the truth is finally out, and I could know all the information and make a decision on what I am for and what I'm against. These kind of documents also are good to be released to the public because some of the articles in the document are almost disturbing and something needs to be done, and change needs to happen. Now while it is all fine and dandy for the public to know the truth about these documents what about the ethics the whistleblower is committing by stealing the documents from the government. Is it ethical? Was it ultimately a good decision to release the documents? Did it do more good than bad? 

Many people are aware of the WikiLeaks story and have been following the story for months, but not many people know of the similar case with Daniel Ellsberg who committed a very similar contraversy in 1971 with  Pentagon documents involving the Vietnam War.

Bradley Manning just like Daniel Ellberg is on one hand be called a hero, but on the other hand called a traitor and a villain. Bradley Manning was a 22 year old working for the army in Iraq and leaked thousands upon thousands of documents, and video's to WikiLeaks to inform the public of what was actually happening in the war, and just how different the stories were that the public were being told compared the actual truth of what was happening. Bradley Manning's first video he sent to WikiLeaks " Collateral Murder" caused a huge uproar in the media and has been viewed by millions of people on the internet. Daniel Ellsberg also worked for the government and leaked approximately 7,000 pages of documents about the Vietnam War. The Pentagon documents clearly stated how wrong the information the public was being fed from what actually what was happening. Ellsberg was also called a hero from many people, and like Bradley Manning was called a traitor as well.

Right now Bradly Manning is currenly in a military prison. Thousands of anti-war protestors are campaigning for Bradley to be released. Supporters of Manning have even created a website in support of freeing Manning http://www.bradleymanning.org/ . In a recent protest to free Bradley Manning, which Daniel Ellsberg attended, another pretty hot issue right now of police brutality also occured where Daniel Ellsburg was arrested.

I may have a pretty biased opinion on this matter being an anti-war supporter myself, but doesn't it seem wrong to lock up Bradley Manning when he is NOT convicted of any crimes and treated as harshly as the most dangerous criminals would be? He is locked in isolation for 23 hours a day and being denied books, personal items, and to be able to excersize. For what!? Telling people the truth, letting the public know what is really happening in Iraq instead being apart of the lies the government has been feeding to the public. To me, that is cruel.