Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jul 2001
Source: Macon Telegraph (GA)
Copyright: 2001The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.macontelegraph.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667
Author: Steven Black

WHERE DO WE LIVE?

Where do we live? I am a little confused and maybe you can help. What 
country I am living in, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's U.S.S.R. or the United 
States?

Soon after he came to power, Hitler set up a program to keep track of the 
people who were a "security risk." He did this with the help of computer 
punch cards. But this could never happen in the USA?

In Stalin's U.S.S.R. of the 1930s, people who had complained about the 
"worker's paradise" were put in jail for 10 or more years. But this could 
never happen in the USA?

Today, American law enforcement can seize and keep money from people who 
have not been charged or committed a crime. So much for the Fourth Amendment.

In the name of "security," the Tampa police are using cameras to scan the 
faces of all people walking the streets in the entertainment district. 
Thank you Big Brother.

In Ohio, a man who wrote in his private journal disturbing and disgusting 
stories about torturing and molesting children was put in jail for 10 years 
- --- even though no real children were involved. His warped stories were 
just a sick fantasy --- nothing more.

What kind of country do we want where people have property taken for no 
legitimate reason, or are monitored 24 hours a day, and where one can be 
put in jail for writing a disgusting fantasy?

Steven Black
Gray
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MAP posted-by: Beth