Ashcroft: Patriot Act Provision Unused (washingtonpost.com)
Ummm...not to sound paranoid about my government, but...just because an official (and in this case, not even an elected official) says something, doesn't make it so, and with the gag sections in place, there's no independent way to verify it. Now I'm not saying there's any deliberate attempt to dupe the American public (who, moi?) but I can easily see in a few months something to the effect of...oh, that memo was based on incorrect information given by an aide, etc. How are we to know otherwise? So even though I'm not a member of the ALA (a poor medical librarian who can't afford dues to both it and the MLA), I don't think the principles they're fighting for constitute as windmills--as one fellow librarian suggested, and I applaud their efforts. The day we stop questioning the system is the day we stop having any sort of democracy, and the fact of the matter is that librarians and their patrons are potentially affected by this legislation. (So, for that matter, are basically anyone else--bookstores, private citizens, etc., but many of them know nothing about the PATRIOT act). One of the things I did after a teleconference was get some materials for our hospital adminstration because the best way to handle a potential enquiry is to have a policy in place to deal with supoenas, warrants, and the like. Granted, it's unlikely to come up, but I'd hate to be caught unawares.
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