I’d like to take a moment to comment on the library. Yes, you read that correctly, I’d like to comment on the library. I am sure you are aware of the Department for Homeland Security’s action to allow the FBI to have access to library patron records. So what? I’d like to play the devil’s advocate for a moment here and suggest that since patron records show only information about what books you checked out, you really have nothing to worry about. I would imagine that most people don’t check out incriminating books, and those who do probably aren’t under investigation by the FBI anyway. The FBI doesn’t have the time or resources (and if they do, the US gov’t spending habits need to be seriously reexamined) to look at every single person’s library records. If you aren’t already in trouble with the FBI, you probably don’t have any reason to suspect your records have been examined. So what?

So now that the devil’s advocate is gone for the day, one must consider the limitations on the FBI in terms of gaining access to these records. Oh wait, I forgot, there aren’t hardly any. So really, librarian’s claims that its an invasion of privacy aren’t “hysterical” as John Ashcroft insists. I am rather inclined to side with the librarians in this case, in that some limitations need to be placed on the FBI to prevent them from abusing this power. As an American, I have an instinctive distrust of government, and it appears here as well. I don’t want someone from the FBI reading my library records, even if the only books I have checked out are about Japanese reconstruction and Martin Luther King Jr. After all,it could be apparent from my records the /real/ reason I was looking at books about MLK.

djno awareandalert

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003 at 8:29 am and is filed under rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.