The following words are the rambling thoughts of a man, feeling like a lone voice, trapped in, as Thomas Paine once called them, ".the times that try men's souls." I had other titles in mind: "Don't Sacrifice Freedom for Safety" or "Is It Okay To Take This Sucker In." The latter was based on an experience a few days ago when a young woman entering our county courthouse, sucker in hand, asked security that very question. Without doubt, had she been told no, she would have discarded it without question.

It is with deep regret we must report the loss of the war on terrorism one recent October day with the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act." I suspect someone thought up the acronym first. After all, who could oppose an act with such a name-why that would be like opposing patriotism in a time of national crisis! Well, actually it was opposed, by one member of the United States Senate and I believe 66 members of the United States House of Representatives. Fucking traitors, all 67 of them, opposing all things good and standing solidly for the "evil-doers" we hear so much about.

So what's the big deal-we're at war against terrorism and need all the tools this great country of ours can muster to fight the good fight and win the war for democracy. The reality is, with passage of the Act, democracy took it on the chin and is down for the count.

Now don't get me wrong. I wholeheartedly support this war. I just can't support the Act passed in record time, without hearings, without public debate and numerous last minute changes to a massive and complex piece of legislation; a statute about 30,000 words long that many voting on it never even had a chance to read it in its entirety. Actually, those that were opposed to such quick passage were labeled unpatriotic. Yet, despite polls by Harris recently the American people are willing to sacrifice freedom for safety, ie. computer Internet tapping, intercepting voice mails, tracking e-mails, illegal-well, no longer, searches and seizures, E-911 cell phones, detainment without charges based only on suspicion, etc., my guess is these 67 were the true patriots recognizing we already had the tools in place to fight this war, although some updating may have been necessary to keep up with ever-changing technology; but they also realized these changes should not come at the expense of basic American freedoms and civil liberties we once enjoyed.

Other than the backbone of the American people so inclined to acquiesce in this assault on their liberties, what was lost? Well, the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution took quite a hit. Let's see, how does that first one go, oh yeah, "Congress shall make no law.abridging the freedom of speech.or right of people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The Fourth Amendment, in a nutshell, grants our citizenry the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures and that security is not to be violated and no warrants are to issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, i.e. in lay terms, don't be coming in my home looking at my things or taking my stuff without a search warrant issued by a judge upon probable cause that something will be found based upon credible evidence, by affidavit under oath, that maybe I did something illegal.

So, should members of Literotica care about this? Putting aside the associated rights not specified in the First Amendment for now, if your computer is running like mine the past several days, yes, they should be. When I click Sexual Role Playing a website called Hated.com. pops up. Oh, I can still get there using another path, but the site referred to is an anti-President Bush website. I thought it was just my computer, but I've checked others with the same result. So, some person is exercising his/her right to freedom of speech being critical of the president and the government and I don't really care except for where he/she placed it.

Okay, maybe you wonder what the big deal is. This system will eventually work out the problem and the intruding site will one day be gone. This may be carrying things to an extreme on my part, but nothing in the Act prevents the government from fishing expeditions. While the stated goal is to fight international terrorism, in our zeal to be safe rather than free, these new police powers can be used against American citizens not necessarily under criminal investigation. You see, the Act also includes "domestic terrorism" broadly and vaguely defined so the Act can easily be applied to or against those engaged in political protest, not just terrorism. So I pulled up Hated.com, not because I wanted to, but because it just popped on my screen. Any need to be concerned?

Well, yeah, maybe there is. Since the Act includes domestic terrorism, ongoing criminal investigations, as well as international terrorism, have I done anything wrong? Maybe, by pulling up that damned site I can't rid myself of. Have you as a writer or a person posting on the general board done anything wrong? Same answer as I read some of the comments about current events made by members. See, the problem is I pulled it up while on the Internet. I even sent an e-mail to the webmaster about it. Hell, to compound my problem and the problem of anyone I've ever sent an e-mail to, I went a step further by going into the site to see if there was a way I could get rid of it-like unsubscribing to a post. No luck, but now I've left an electronic trail of my activities. Will somebody at the Attorney General's office wonder what the hell I'm up to looking at the anti-Bush sentiments of some interloper? Maybe. On the other hand, how will they even know?

Under the Act the government can now do Internet tapping and check my e-mails(not the contents mind you, just the addresses and the FBI has promised they will only look at the addresses and not the contents of the message-right!), with little or no judicial intervention or protection afforded me. All a federal agent has to do is tell some judge tracking my e-mail is necessary to ongoing criminal investigation and the court has no choice but to grant a warrant, and not an ordinary search warrant. Probable cause and affidavits aren't even factors-the surveillance is permitted under the pretext of looking at ill-defined terrorist activity or an "ongoing criminal investigation."

So, if you ever pulled up Hated.com. or are reading this now, are you in trouble? Maybe. If the powers that be want to target specific persons for what they write, think or say, it's not all that tough. A quick check with your local Internet provider and their in business. And if you think they don't have the time or resources to watch everybody, think again. The tools are in place to capture everything, including deleted e-mail, store it, run a computer program looking for key words, and they got you. Even worse, nobody is going to come knocking at your door with a search warrant to use a special encoding program to review deleted e-mail or check every site you've looked at. The government thought about that and took care of the problem by so-called "sneak and peak" provisions that allow police authorities to break into your home or office, when you're not there, rifle your records and make copies of "evidence" against you. It makes no difference if you are ever charged with a crime. It just becomes part of your file I guess.

Folks, this has been done before. For those of you up on recent history, or old enough to remember, the FBI, the same people I have to trust not to read my e-mails, kept secret files on citizens for years during the Vietnam War era and not just those engaged in protesting the war, but elected officials and those suspected, as defined by them(like that radical dude Martin Luther King), to be a threat to the state. Of course, we didn't know it at the time, but through the Freedom of Information Act, we found out. We were appalled of course that the government would do this and of course the government felt bad about it too. Well you can be as shocked and appalled now as you want, but you know what, it's all legal now.

If you think you're thoughts don't count, think again. While I have no sympathy for the man, a convicted pedophile not far from where I live wrote his thoughts about children and what he'd like to do to them in private, personal diary. Some pretty nasty and disturbing stuff from what I understand. The diary was his and his alone, but somebody found it, read it, turned it in, charges were filed and off to prison he goes. His only real defense: He was writing his personal thoughts for and to himself with no intention of carrying out anything contained in it and, no crime against children had been committed by him after his earlier release from prison. Well, the "thought police" believed it was a crime just writing this in his personal diary, the court accepted a guilty plea from him, and bye-bye. Oh, not he has an attorney specializing in the First Amendment and criminal law to set aside the guilty plea, but no success so far.

Okay, so you're not a registered sexual predator like him, why be concerned? Putting aside some of what is written is illegal in certain states, it is an unfortunate set of circumstances, and sad but true fact in this country, the rights of citizens to be free against infringement of their privacy by the government is predicated on the rights we extend criminals or those accused of crimes. In other words, the only safeguard you as a private citizen have against stops, searches and seizures, for example, comes from the rights afforded those accused of crimes through judicial interpretation. Now with the Act in place, it really doesn't matter.

Sadly, I haven't even touched on the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the United States Constitution. You see, we used to have this thing called the Bill of Rights, but if the powers that be determine I should be detained for any reason, they can do it. Nobody seems to be sure how long, but it sounds like a long time even though the Fifth Amendment used to prohibit being held to answer for a crime-oops, forgot, don't have to have a crime anymore-except upon presentment or indictment of charges. So they detain me, call my attorney right? Who knows, probably not immediately, but he probably can't get me out anyway. Might as well save my quarter on that one.

Yet, we know the old system works. Even with the old Constitutional safeguards in place before this hideous new law, we were able to convict and sentence terrorists in New York recently. Now it doesn't matter; trials become unimportant. We can just hold people without leveling charges and save taxpayers tons of money and unburden our burdened prosecutors from doing their job according to the Constitution they swore to uphold. Anybody remember the San Antonio doctor held for two weeks based on suspicion only. The first week he couldn't even call an attorney and then gets released without any charges ever being filed against him. Keep in mind, had he been a terrorist, or affiliated with terrorism, this denial of his due process rights would have warranted his case being thrown out of court had he been charged.

Of course, he had an Arabic name and you probably don't. The government bureaucracy thrives on power and they won't give it up easily. Once that power is in place, and it is, I don't care if your name is Jim or Osama, you better watch out! When a bureaucracy is in place and has money to spend, it has to justify itself and the justification here is to do what the Act requires.

Are the American people accepting of these changes? Sure they are. I guess FDR summed it up best when he warned "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, many people in this nation are living in a state of fear right now. As I write this on Halloween night, people are afraid to send their children out. Local hospitals are offering to x-ray candy and other treats for free. People want to stock up on antibiotics for fear of contracting Anthrax. Some people won't even open their mail. Not long ago you could get on a plane and just about have a private stewardess.

We live in fear of the next terrorist attack, which sadly is probably a given. You don't bomb the shit out of a country without expecting some sort of retaliation. The government knows that and they have told us that. I'm all for the bombing, but I understand the concept of retaliation and every American should. What are we bombing for anyway? Retaliation and vengeance, and of course to keep the world, and us, free from fear of an insidious enemy-we just can't be free while we fight this war for next how many years no one knows. Yeah, I expect retaliation, it's inevitable we will face another dark day similar to September 11th. I will go through the same processes as before; shock, sadness and anger.

Does the government feed us a plate of fear and if so, why? I hope not, but as I write we the people are on a high state of alert for the second time this month. The first one was October 11th. Our Attorney General has warned of impending attacks against us here at home or at interests overseas. If this is put on the site, I hope and pray those attacks have not come, but if they haven't, just as they didn't October 11th, it does make me wonder. Are Americans more willing to sacrifice freedom when there is fear in the air? Of course they are.

The spirit of Patrick Henry no longer lives in the hearts of the American people. I guess we have forgotten the founders of this nation, a small group of dissidents sacrificed their lives for freedom from England and then gave us a Bill of Rights we now so willingly throw away because we've already died inside. Or what about the troops that stormed the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima-all in vain? Aren't we being more just a little disloyal to them right now? I saw this problem September 12th when I wrote and sent a letter to the editor of our local newspaper urging people not to sacrifice freedom for safety and had it hammered home when New York City wanted to set up a dictatorial mayoralship and not once do I recall Mayor Rudy saying that was a bad idea. You know, this country has survived constitutional and other crises before. An impeached president in the 70s and a flawed election in 2000, but the transition of power worked. So, if you want to sacrifice freedom for safety, I guess you have that right but I think for myself I'll sacrifice safety for freedom.

So, anyway, might the Attorney General be trying to make the Act more palatable by warnings of impending doom-kind of a case of the ends justifying the means so to speak?

Am I being unpatriotic for questioning the USA PATRIOT Act? Should I be tarred and feathered by people asking "what do you have to hide, or if you've done nothing wrong, why be concerned?"

My only answer, because I love freedom! Dissent is an essential part of the democratic process-the marketplace of ideas so we were taught in school. Dissent does not make one disloyal just as blind obedience does not make one a loyal patriot. Given a choice, I'd rather be surrounded by people that question than blindly accept. I have nothing to hide, I just happen to love freedom from governmental intrusion and I also just happen to believe it is impossible to know or anticipate what happens when personal information is delved into and collected by the police. Unless you are blind and deaf, you have to be aware of abuses, not only by governmental authorities, but private companies in the past. I'd like to be able to know I can speak freely with friends or to the public without worrying about recriminations by the government or public at large because some do-gooder decided to inform on me-hey, does this last part remind anybody of a few governments of the last century we fought so gallantly against?

The Act has a Sunset clause four years hence, but can be reinstated by Congress. I'm sure it will be although I hope they tinker with it quite a bit, but I'm not going to count on it. Our vice-president talking about the new "normalcy" of American life has made it clear "many of the steps we now have been forced to take will become permanent in American life." I guess even if you don't believe we have lost the war, it looks like we can't even win it in the long run. And don't count on the Supreme Court of the United States to come in and save us from this Act and the assault on our basic civil liberties. About the only justice talking about individual freedoms and rights these days is Justice O'Connor. Even this unexpected champion of individual rights recently in an address to a New York law school in response to terrorism said, "We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country." Pretty scary stuff when you consider what happened to Americans of Japanese heritage at the beginning of World War II or a country that permitted slavery for over 200 years.

So the ugly head of fear has crept in and many Americans are unconcerned about intrusion into their personal privacy; phone records, Internet records, cell phone calls and now location, medical records, etc., all so we can be safe. Folks, this Act is not about safety. Safety means standing in long lines waiting to board a plane or get into a football game. I don't have a problem with that at all. This Act goes to the fundamental freedoms we have paid a very high price for in the past; freedoms that have eroded slowly over time, but completely taken out with one fell swoop of a pen with all the pomp and ceremony of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Perhaps the pen is mightier than the sword! And remember, the First Amendment is not just about freedom of speech, it includes associated freedoms of thought, travel, and association. It also includes freedom of religious belief without interference from the government. You may love this new law in your religious fervor and believe you have the right religious belief today so why worry, but will it be the right one tomorrow?

So if I write this under my screen name am I hiding? No, if "they" want to figure out who I am they can do it now. I remember a summer day in 1972, President Nixon came by motorcade through my little hamlet. I stood up the road alone awaiting his arrival so I could look him in the eye and give him the finger. Protected speech back then, now, who knows. I will rewrite this and send it to my local newspaper under my real name just in case the government snoopers don't catch me right away. If they bitch, I'll give them the verbal finger.

So, as you peck away at your keyboard, remember the liberties being lost in a climate of fear. Remember J. Edgar Hoover using an entire branch of the government, not to investigate crime, but invade the privacy of those he believed to be enemies of the state-we just never he was doing it at the time or the thought processes at work determining who that enemy was. Of course, now the CIA gets to join in on the fun of spying on the American people.

National security is important but we need intelligent debate of issues. We need to question policies and think the "unthinkable thoughts" as Senator Fulbright once wrote, adding, "we must learn to welcome and not fear voices of dissent.because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and actions become mindless." We must not forget Edward Murrow's challenge to McCarthyism when he warned us not to confuse dissent with disloyalty. Maybe when these policies are fully in place, some Americans will become outraged and the sleeping giant will once again awaken. Right now, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Political debate is an essential and necessary part of American life if democracy is to survive, but policy decisions cannot be made based upon fear. Don't be afraid to speak up for what you believe to be right or wrong. Hell, maybe you think I'm overreacting and just plain wrong on this and that's fine-you can let me know. But, if you're the type of person that asks if it's okay to take a sucker in a building, don't be bothering me now, I have more important things to concern myself with.

If fear was the intended purpose of the terrorists on September 11th, and no doubt it was, to the point where we would change our way of life, then I suspect fear has won and we, the people of this nation, have lost. Our government one day will end up looking like any other we have in the past denounced.