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Editorial: Enemies of the state Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle May 15 A half-century ago a drunken bully used his U.S. Senate seat to ruin the lives and careers of countless Americans. In a warped sense of "patriotism," Joseph McCarthy ran around the country rooting out nests of "communists," at least as he saw them through his liquor-soaked eyes. It wasn't until he was exposed on national television by the famed Edward R. Murrow that McCarthy's reign of terror was brought in check. Before Murrow, and to a lesser degree President Eisenhower, bearded the lion in his den, McCarthy was free to spew his venom as the nation's self-appointed super patriot. Until his paranoid ranting and raving reached the absurd, opponents even in McCarthy's Republican Party were afraid to challenge him, lest they be viewed as unpatriotic or, worse, traitors. Dissent was not the American way in the view of McCarthy and his supporters. Such is the climate that America is rapidly approaching once again. In the name of patriotism, voices of dissent or of nothing more than serious questioning are branded as subversive enemies of the state. Cases in point are the Patriot Act and its progeny, the proposed Patriot Act II. Pushed through Congress soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the first Patriot Act gives federal authorities unprecedented powers to gather information by snooping into our private lives. Records of the books we read and of the physicians we see are fair game. The prying has gotten so bad that such diverse groups as the American Conservative Union and the American Civil Liberties Union are sending up caution flags. Still, officials in the Bush administration are undaunted and undeterred. They say their cause is just, and they know what's best for the country. They refuse information upon which to weigh the effects of the act in the war against terrorism against the resultant loss of civil liberties. The Justice Department says it's no one's business, in effect saying, "Trust us. We'll tell you what you need to know." Those who question are shouted down and castigated as being out of step with true patriots. That's utter nonsense. It's to their credit, then, that members of the Traverse City Commission, the city's Human Rights Commission and the district library board are willing to stand up and be counted. They're taking a long, hard look at the local effects of the laws passed in the name of patriotism. As one official aptly put it: "We're about freedom of speech and the passing of knowledge - pretty much unfettered - one source to another." It's time for Americans to beat back the ghost of the senator from Wisconsin and the excesses he embraced. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -