Paranoia and Fear
There's a BBC show on TV right now talking about the violations of our civil liberties forced upon us by the PATRIOT act. My first thought is wondering whether this sort of analysis is being shown in the U.S. or whether my famously myopic countrymen are being kept in the dark. My second thought is wondering whether my thoughts on this blog has somehow marked me - I wonder if the Bush government is going to put me on a No Fly list or a "enemies" list because I come up first in Google's search for "republicans suck". I didn't have any trouble during my trip in December, but my blog has shot up in the rankings since then. I wonder if I'll have any trouble when petitioning for Ana's residency visa?
And I wonder about the government's reach into online organizations. How many times has Amazon been petitioned for their book records? Has Google been tapped? Are they required to make a list of anyone searching for certain keywords and send it off to the FBI or Homeland security? How far has the government reached in to other online organizations?
I'm afraid of returning to the U.S. in so many ways. Remember - my wife is not a citizen and thus by the PATRIOT act she is a permanent suspect. The government can come and take her away for whatever reason they want and detain her for an unlimited amount of time. In fact it doesn't matter if you're a foreigner or not, anyone who criticizes the government is suspect as well ("If you're not with us you're against us"). Just the fact that this is true makes me afraid. Fear is the weapon of a dictatorial regime. I almost didn't write this.
George Orwell was right, just 20 years off on his dates.
-Russ