Inside October 19, 2004's Issue

What every freshman should know

Editorial Cartoon

Casualties of the war on terror

Is giving up our privacy and personal information worth thinking that we are safer than four years ago?

Under the Patriot Act that was enacted six weeks after 9-11 as part of Homeland Security and the Campaign of Fear that George W. Bush and his cronies are spearheading, our government decided to give itself the right to confiscate our medical and financial records, our computer files and emails, our telephone records, records of what books we check out in school and public libraries and even records of what books we buy at the local Barnes and Noble.

And here's the punch line � all of this can happen even if a person has never committed a crime, has no speeding tickets, no probation or jail time, not even a warning for jaywalking.

So what does that mean for a 23-year-old who has broken a leg, or a parent working two jobs to support kids, or a teenager who likes to send emails to friends about someone he or she has a crush on, or someone who places a call to cousin Amin in California, or a Georgia Highlands College student who checks out the Qur'an because it's required for a religious studies class?

We no longer have the freedom of keeping anything personal.

Big Brother can now not only use a satellite in space to watch us walk through a parking lot, but He can see if we've checked out any books on witchcraft or cannibalism.

Additional hassles are created if one's name is identical or similar to one on the Suspected Terrorist List.

For example, most employers do not take the time and effort to differentiate identities by checking birthdates and similar information. This leaves unsuspecting innocent people, who just happen to have a name similar to that of a suspected terrorist, wondering why they keep getting turned down for jobs.

Traveling can also be a hassle.

Innocent people are interrogated at the airport because their name may sound like or be only a letter or two off from an actual terrorist's name that pops up on the List.

Now granted, with the mess that our incompetent administration has gotten us into in the Middle East, we don't want just anyone getting on a plane, but when innocent people are being denied jobs and our personal lives are at stake because the Bush Administration is free to spy on us at any time, exactly who is safer and exactly who is free?

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