THE FBI HAS NOT BEEN HERE
I’ve been reading Marilyn Johnson’s excellent, brand new book This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, and it’s reminded me of that disaster of Bush-era legislation: The Patriot Act.
Chapter 5 in Johnson’s book describes the story of the Connecticut Four, who were librarians and library administrators who resisted the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, their court-ordered gags did not let them speak out about their resistance before the Patriot Act was first renewed in 2005. Because of the gag order, Bush and company were free to lie to the public, saying that no official challenges to the Patriot Act had been received.
Earlier this Week, Congress and President Obama extended the Bush Patriot Act for yet another year. This is a huge disappointment to me.
A key factor in the Connecticut Four’s ability to resist the Patriot Act was their organizing ahead of time. In consultation with their lawyer, they devised a policy to refer all “national security letters” and other requests for patron information all the way up the chain to the Executive Director of the library consortium (one of the Connecticut Four). This well-rehearsed policy prevented FBI agents or anyone else from pressuring library staff at the bottom of the totem poll into compliance with a “national security letter” — compliance that meant not only breaching library users’ privacy but also covering up that breach of privacy.
An old children’s story comes to mind: Drummer Hoff. Look it up some time if you don’t know it; or better still, ask a librarian to help you find a copy. At any rate, I bring up Drummer Hoff to illustrate the point that, ultimately, it’s up to us whether we follow unjust orders.
So, I take heart that, out there among the people of all walks of life who are willing to defend our civil liberties, the librarians have got our back. And librarians by nature know how to organize. Some librarians are even sly enough to post signs like:
Share ThisTHE FBI HAS NOT BEEN HERE
(watch very closely for the removal of this sign)
