Ever since 9/11 and the inception of the Patriot Act, I have noticed that people get really crazy trying to do their "civic duty." I guess civic duty now means "inform on your neighbors" and "ignore civil rights."
For example, one woman came up to the desk to pick up her hold. The hold happened to be a copy of the Koran. Before she took the book, she looked at me and asked, "Can you tell me who had this book before me?"
I responded, "No, I can't do that. That would violate privacy law."
The woman then replied, "Well, I just want to know if any MUSLIMS (she actually whispered this word) had it before me because they might have put anthrax or something in it to poison Americans."
"Well, I've handled it and my co-workers have handled it and none of us have keeled over so that's all I can tell you."
I mean, c'mon lady!
Another woman (why is it always hysterical women?) came up to me one day to tell me that "an Arab man" was looking at bomb-making on one of our computers and she wanted me to call the police. Well, we also have people looking at pornography and, even worse, Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code website, but I'm not calling the police on them. It's called "free speech!" Look into it.
People, just because someone is looking at something that you object to on the internet doesn't mean it is for nefarious purposes. Maybe they are doing research or writing a paper on the subject. Although certain powers that be want us turning on each other and becoming local government informants, some of us still believe in free speech and privacy and will continue to fight the good fight against censorship.
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