Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Sun, Aug 24 2003
U. S. Attorney General Tour: Is It One Big Mosh Pit?
Mr. Ashcroft is going on a tour (with American taxpayer money, I suppose) to convince us that The Patriot Act is a good thing. And there is now a website to assist him in that aim.
I'm still concerned. I don't want the public library to have to report which books people check out (they could read in the library and leave without checking out books anyway--or has everyone forgotten that?). I do trememdous amounts of research on every topic imaginable. I don't want a list of those topics monitored by government employees because they think I "might" do something bad with the information. Nothing makes me angrier (except child and animal abuse) than someone assuming I have evil motives.
And what about all the research I do on the internet? Would they like to monitor that too? I write fiction. I could be researching anything from ant poison to firearm maintenance to the care and feeding of pygmy goats. This does not mean I'm going to run out and participate in subversive, terrorist attacks on my fellow citizens.
Living in a free society means less government (not more), less intrusion into lives (not more), and less monitoring (not more). If this puts me at more risk from terrorism, I'm willing to take that risk. I'd rather die free than live in what threatens to become so much of a police state that our government becomes the very evil it's supposed to help prevent. I would invite everyone to look back at the early days of the American Revolution and the principles upon which the early government was formed. We don't need apologetics from our leaders. We need our leaders to return to the original vision that made this country a place of freedom. And living in freedom, like living in love, is a risky, and wonderful, way to live.
posted at: 10:22 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Mr. Ashcroft is going on a tour (with American taxpayer money, I suppose) to convince us that The Patriot Act is a good thing. And there is now a website to assist him in that aim.
I'm still concerned. I don't want the public library to have to report which books people check out (they could read in the library and leave without checking out books anyway--or has everyone forgotten that?). I do trememdous amounts of research on every topic imaginable. I don't want a list of those topics monitored by government employees because they think I "might" do something bad with the information. Nothing makes me angrier (except child and animal abuse) than someone assuming I have evil motives.
And what about all the research I do on the internet? Would they like to monitor that too? I write fiction. I could be researching anything from ant poison to firearm maintenance to the care and feeding of pygmy goats. This does not mean I'm going to run out and participate in subversive, terrorist attacks on my fellow citizens.
Living in a free society means less government (not more), less intrusion into lives (not more), and less monitoring (not more). If this puts me at more risk from terrorism, I'm willing to take that risk. I'd rather die free than live in what threatens to become so much of a police state that our government becomes the very evil it's supposed to help prevent. I would invite everyone to look back at the early days of the American Revolution and the principles upon which the early government was formed. We don't need apologetics from our leaders. We need our leaders to return to the original vision that made this country a place of freedom. And living in freedom, like living in love, is a risky, and wonderful, way to live.
posted at: 10:22 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
