Sherry Chandler » What a Strange World We’ve Come to Live In
What a Strange World We’ve Come to Live In
A few weeks ago, a friend remarked to me that any one picked up from the year 2000 and dropped into 2006 would be appalled to see what has happened to our nation. Those of us who have lived through the last five years mostly have come to accept it. Just once in a while we see a hint, as in this news report from the NYTimes this morning. “Librarians win…”:
After fighting ferociously for months, federal prosecutors relented yesterday and agreed to allow a Connecticut library group to identify itself as the recipient of a secret F.B.I. demand for records in a counterterrorism investigation.
The decision ended a dispute over whether the broad provisions for secrecy in the USA Patriot Act, the antiterror law, trumped the free speech rights of library officials. The librarians had gone to federal court to gain permission to identify themselves as the recipients of the secret subpoena, known as a national security letter, ordering them to turn over patron records and e-mail messages.
Think about that for a while. The librarians were suing not to be able to protect the privacy of their clients, not to disclose the nature or subject of the investigation, but just to be able to tell the world that they’d been subpoenaed.
We have a government that can investigate us without telling us the nature of that investigation or even that the investigation is going on. We have a government that can eavesdrop on our telephone conversations and e-mails without so much as a court review. We are a paranoid nation, afraid of our own shadows, willing to sell our birthrights for very questionable security.
The parallels from history are sobering.
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3 Comments
1. Charlie replies at 13th April 2006, 8:17 am :
Once again you’ve nailed it, Sherry. I recall that when Alexander Solzenitzen first left (escaped) and came to the United States. After staying here for awhile he travelled on to Canada saying, “I will not live in a nation of cowards and lazy people.” (paraphrase) I rembered it because while it made me angry, I knew he was right. I have never known government leaders to be so paranoid. I guess when you get people leading the nation who wouldn’t do their duty for their nation this is what you get. And, in case someone wonders, it does matter how smart your elected officials are. –charlie
2. sherry replies at 13th April 2006, 10:25 am :
Thanks, Charlie. This is one case in which I wish I were wrong.
I just read this very relevant statement from Jackson Lears, writing in The New Republic:
The only thing I see we can do is get out and vote in this year’s mid-terms to try to get some balance of power back in Washington.
3. MW replies at 13th April 2006, 1:58 pm :
When I was a boy, I was taught that I was living in the “Land of the Free”. I wonder whatever happened to that place.
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