Terrified? You should be.

Today four Connecticut librarians revealed that they had been forced to allow the FBI access to patron records without a warrant. Furthermore, they were prohibited from speaking about it to anyone.

They successfully sued to have the gag order lifted, but it comes too late. While Ashcroft, Gonzalez, and others committed perjury to defend the Patriot Act, saying that it had never been used to acquire library records with out a warrant, these librarians and probably countless others were seemingly powerless to expose the lies.

But were they really powerless?

I don't think so. I believe that their responsibility as Americans would have been to defy the gag order and expose a horrendous abuse of power which threatens our liberty. I don't think I'm alone in this view. Here is what some famous patriots have to say (quotes from Wikiquote):

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." ~ Thomas Paine

"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defense of our nation worthwhile." ~ Earl Warren

"The saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time." ~ George Sutherland

"One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

These librarians have no more or less power to speak out today than they had before the gag order was lifted. However, they had the power to inform the public about the true results of the Patriot Act before it was renewed. They lost this power due to their failure to act in time. The worst that the federal government could have done would have been to imprison them. Prison would have been terrible, but living with the consequences of inaction is much worse.

Here is what I have been listening to these past two days:

1. Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere
2. The Walkmen: Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
3. Portishead: Dummy
4. XXL: ¡Ciautistico!
5. Tom Zé: Estudando o Pagode: Na Opereta Segregamulher e Amor
6. The Dresden Dolls: Yes, Virginia...
7. Radio 4: Enemies Like This
8. Deerhoof: EP
9. Built to Spill: You in Reverse
10. Annie: Anniemal
11. The Television Personalities: My Dark Places
12. Nicolai Dunger: Here's My Song...