The Patriot Act, What it Means for YOU

Hello.

The topic that I have read about for this “Jigsaw Activity” is on the issue of censorship (rather obviously). This censorship, however, is more centered around 9/11 and terrorism related omissions. More specifically, The Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is an act that was passed to allow the government to look at the books that you buy, check out from the library or look for while you are at a public library. This was implemented, they say, because one of the suspected terrorists of the 9/11 crisis did research in a public library. If this was a debate topic, I would suggest that the resolution be as follows: The Patriot Act goes directly against our First Amendment rights.

This is really important. Think about it this way, the government could go back and looking through records of any book that you ever checked out or bought. While you are in a public library, a free space to use a computer, the government can legally ask the library for records of everything that you did while you were there. Now, most of you probably never pick up a book unless directly asked (and even then…), but you DO use the computer and you wouldn’t want the government looking through your history and accusing you of terrorism based on those accounts. Because of recent changes in the legislation, the FBI can now look at these files without a reason (if they have one) and they certainly don’t have to give a reason to the library staff. I have a right to what I read. That is NONE of the government’s business. This is a direct breach of our privacy and shouldn’t even be legal.

The reasons against this, I have given above, but to recap, this is a violation of our privacy; we have a right to do whatever we want. The government should have very good reasons and evidence before going into this stuff. As Nancy Chang put it, “The act grants the executive branch unprecedented, and largely unchecked, surveillance powers.”

On the other hand, we have John Ashcroft, ex-attorney general, who advocated for The Patriot Act, perhaps because he was the one who wrote it. He says that the government doesn’t care what types of books we read and that there are only 11,000 FBI agents in the USA and they are not going to waste their time looking over our shoulders at the books we read. The administration, he says, believes in the First Amendment.

Now, that might be true, but I don’t believe what he said about the FBI. Why have a Patriot Act if they really don’t care what we are buying? Why even allow that option if they honestly don’t care? Therefore, I think that he must be lying. What other purpose would the act serve?

Goodbye.