Silly Thinking

Hi everyone this is Jim Farris filling in for Douglas Lain while he's on assignment.



Last spring Douglas Lain organized a political rally to protest the Patriot Acts provision to access private records held by libraries around the country. The rally included author readings and a march to the central library where participants checked out pre selected dissident books that Lain chose in order to send a message to Johnny A. Ashcroft.

Well yesterday the Justice department stated that they have not and will not access those library records. It is widley recieved as a victory for the U.S. public that felt that the new law breeched our basic freedoms.

Concerned citizens who wrote Washington and, yes, organized protests, seem to have made such an impact that the government SAYS IT BACKED DOWN. But the law is still on the books and the next step would repeal this provision and other laws that if, unchecked, will turn our country into even more of a police state than it already is.

To get the Justice department to state publicly a denial of use of the law is a victory for citizens who had the courage and smarts to do something... anything... to show their disapproval.

Organizing a protest is not easy but bureaucratic lipservice is. But in a case like this a denial is a small but important victory.