Resident Presses Council to
Oppose Federal Patriot Act

TRACY MEADOWCROFT / Waynesboro Record Herald (PA) 5aug03

WAYNESBORO - Residents of Belfast, Maine, are urging their five-member city council to adopt a resolution against the federal Patriot Act, despite the fact that it would be a largely symbolic move.

Hawaii, Alaska and Vermont, along with 134 cities and counties across the country, have approved similar resolutions, according to USA Today.

A Waynesboro man, Chris Fewell of West Fourth Street, is trying to convince borough council to take the same path, but so far, he's the only local resident advocating the position.

Waynesboro Borough Councilman Clint Barkdoll said he'd like more community discussion on the issue before council makes any move.

"Anything we do as council would be purely symbolic," Barkdoll said. "We could vote to say we're against it, but this is a federal law on which we can have no effect at the local level."

Congress adopted the Patriot Act six weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It gives authorities greater powers of surveillance and greater access to people's personal records.

Opponents say it overrides the Bill of Rights and puts Americans at risk of having their privacy invaded.

Barkdoll said council has recommended that Fewell share his views with federal officials, including Congressman Bill Shuster and Pennsylvania Sens. Arlen Specter or Rick Santorum.

Fewell has spoken at several recent council meetings about the harm he believes the Patriot Act can do to Americans' civil liberties.

"The so-called Patriot Act is the biggest threat to liberty now facing our nation," Fewell wrote in a letter to The Record Herald. "If ever there was a time to call on the people of Waynesboro to take action on an issue, it is now."

The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a lawsuit against portions of the Patriot Act that allow authorities to monitor books people check out from libraries and conduct secret searches.

"Ordinary Americans should not have to worry that the FBI is rifling through their medical records, seizing their personal papers or forcing charities and advocacy groups to divulge membership lists," commented ACLU attorney Ann Beeson.

Critics say the act threatens a host of freedoms, including freedom of association, since the government may monitor religious and political institutions, and the freedom of liberty, since citizens can be jailed without being formally charged or able to confront witnesses against them.

The Bush administration staunchly defends the act.

"Our ability to prevent another catastrophic attack on American soil would be more difficult, if not impossible, without the Patriot Act," Attorney General John Ashcroft told the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee in June in defense of the legislation.

source: http://www.therecordherald.com/articles/2003/08/05/local_news/news03.txt 7aug03