Much has been said about the USA Patriot Act since it first appeared on the horizon of the American political conscience. Typically, the debate raged from the "protect American liberty at all costs" crowd to the "those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" throngs. Both have good arguments. I mean that. Surely, if you knew that your neighbor was planning to blow up the world, wouldn't you listen through the wall to the bull sessions? Keep in mind, if you've ever listened to your neighbors doing the deed next door - and who hasn't? - you've already committed a far worse crime. Indeed.
What makes the civil libertarians - and anyone with half a brain, really - nervous and nail-bitingly unhappy are the provisions of the Act that did away with constraints on wiretapping, information gathering, and all other manner of snooping. Who knows? That new guy down the hall might be the new Special Agent in charge of Watching Your Monkey Ass.
And now, it seems, one of the most generally accepted privacies may be violated. According to a New York Times piece, one interpretation of the Patriot Act involves the FBI gathering up the details of your research at the library. What you read, what you ask about, what times you are online. Whatever they want. And, naturally, some librarians are up in arms over the whole affair and taking - in the case of the libraries of Santa Cruz - unusual protective measures. They are shredding, daily, records of who's been in and who does what.
Librarians are an odd bunch.
As I get older, I find that I'm a lot less annoyed by the doings of the government. I realized a long, long, long time ago that they were a corrupt bunch of wackos, intent on keeping secrets, doing bad things and being rat bastards on a grand scale (this goes back at least to the 1986 bombing of Libya, when I was eleven years old).
Now, it's almost like a game. "What will they do next? And, how will I react?" It's hard for The Man to do much to disturb me. So, far my part, I hope the local library here holds on to my records. Hell, just go ahead and ship them to the FBI. I don't care that they know I'm reading a book about Mao anymore than I care that they know that I own a copy of Emma Goldman's Anarchism and other essays. In fact, I think it's a good idea for all of us to call the bastards up, and let them know we oppose everything they do. Let's not be afraid. Let's not bow our heads and pray they don't look our way. Let's not hide behind privacy. Let's get out in the open and let them know just how completely useless their system really is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/national/07LIBR.html
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