True heroes of freedom
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for librarians and archivists. They are among the more diverse and quirky people you could ever hope to meet, but they share a passion for helping people find the information they need. That's true whether you're a writer working on a book, like me, or a third grader like my daughter looking up information for a school project.
The word "hero" is thrown around rather loosely these days, but I would use it without hesitation to describe four Connecticut librarians who took on the Bush Administration Justice Department over the so-called Patriot Act. The law, rammed through Congress by the President in the terrifying days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist atttacks, among other things gives the Federal government the right to demand lists of books checked out of public libraries by specific individuals. No probable cause need be shown. FBI agents can issue a "national security letter" and go snooping away.
But it doesn't stop there. Recipients of a national security letter are warned under penalty of fine or imprisonment that they may not reveal "to any person" that they received a national security letter demanding library information. It was a thuggish attempt by the Bush Administration to suppress the howls of protest they knew would erupt every time FBI agents went snooping in library files.
Yesterday, after the Justice Department backed off, the four librarians in Connecticut went public about their role in fighting this part of the misnamed "Patriot Act." Peter Chase is a librarian in Plainville, George Christian, who first received the national security letter, is director of the Library Connection, a small library consortium in Windsor. The other two are Barbara Bailey, a librarian from Glastonbury, and Janet Nocek, a librarian from Portland. They were represented in their court action against the government by the American Civil Liberties Union, which does so much in these trying times to preserve our freedoms.
The librarians took a real risk in even contacting the ACLU because of the law's bar against revealing the national security letter "to any person." They quickly won a challenge to the non-disclosure order in U.S. District Court in Connecticut and again before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the Bush Administration wouldn't back off until it got a reluctant Congress to reauthorize the "Patriot Act" for several more years.
These four librarians defended freedom of information at great risk to their own freedom. We can all express our gratitude by voting for Congressional candidates this November who will begin to bring an end to the horrors of the Bush Administration.