Incoherent Scribblings

Greetings…

from my new laptop!

Belated Birthday Gift

So, if all goes well finishing up the installation tonight, tomorrow I will be blogging from my new laptop!

Say goodbye to the flickering clunky 19″ tube monitor, measily 30G hard drive, broken floppy disk, 2 USB ports in the back, Pentium III machine and hello to my new 15″ LCD display Acer TravelMate 291LCi!

Finally, exactly one month after my birthday I will officially have my present. I guess good things come to those who wait…

Cat Litter

Oh no! It’s that time again… I must change the cat litter!

Not only is it starting to stink, but all three of them keep staring at me with their big yellow-greenish eyes seeming to say, “Hey Mom! Would you PLEASE change the cat litter? We are so tired of digging around in our own shit when we have to pee. Thank you very much.”

All right! All right! I shall obey Their Highnesses… Before I do anything else today, I will change the kitty litter.

Rebel Librarians

The tag line to this article on the BBC News’ front page reads: “Rebel Librarian: The U.S. PATRIOT Act encounters some unlikely opposition.”

I’m quite aggravated with this tag line because I believe it portrays librarians as stereotypically quiet, conservative, and compliant, with only a select few protesting the U.S. PATRIOT Act. In fact, the U.S. PATRIOT Act has widely upset the library community and moved it to speak out and campaign against the consequences that this Act has had and is having on American Civil Liberties.

Ever since it was passed in October 2001, the U.S. PATRIOT Act has encountered opposition from the library community. The main bone of contention lies in the fact that using the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Justice (including the FBI) can access a patron’s library records using a grand jury subpoena without judicial approval at all. In addition, one provision orders any person or institution served with a search warrant not to disclose that such a warrant has been served or that records have been produced pursuant to the warrant. (More information about the U.S. PATRIOT and libraries can be found at the ALA PATRIOT Act Site.)

Librarians are stark defenders of the First Amendment and believe that “privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association. In libraries, the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one’s interest examined or scrutinized by others.” (from ALA’s Guidelines for Developing a Library Privacy Policy) As a general rule, librarians guard a person’s library records much like a doctor protects a patient’s medical records. Not only is the PATRIOT Act an assault on patron privacy and freedom to access information free from scrutiny, it is an insult to the Library Bill of Rights and our Code of Ethics.

To Protect and Serve

A while back, my dad sent me an email informing me that he was considering running for county sheriff in the area where I grew up. Today, I found out that he won the primary and will be on the ballot come election time. I am really rooting for him. Not only would it mean a pay raise and the responsibility he craves, but in a country where police don’t always have the best reputations, my dad is a damn good cop and I am proud of him.

Truthfully, however, I wasn’t always proud to have a dad that was a cop. My dad became a police officer the year that I turned 16 and I viewed this as a complete and utter tragedy. The entire population of Iowa is less than 3 million people (That is less than the population of Berlin!) and the area that comprises a 100 mile radius of where I grew up is probably around 30,000 at the most. In an area with such a small population, chances are that no matter where you are someone knows your family. Even if you try, there are no secrets.

The police officers in these counties have always had a good working relationship and keep each other informed about the area’s shady characters. They also tell each other whose kids are hanging out with whose and if one police officer’s kid gets pulled over for speeding or caught drinking underage that kid’s police officer parent knows before the ink is dry on the ticket… which is exactly what happened to me on more than one occasion between the time I was 15 and 18.

There was the time that I was driving a little too fast on a gravel road to the lake when I was supposed to babysitting (a cheap cover, but it worked) and skidded off into the ditch and broke the ti-rod on my truck. I didn’t get a ticket that time, but the officer that came to make sure everything was alright also called my dad. After that, the babysitting cover story didn’t work so well anymore.

There was also the time that as I was driving home late for curfew and I “rolled” through the stop sign at the major intersection in town. I got pulled over and received a stern warning, but when I got home (just about 5 minutes late) I got an earful about coming to a “full stop” at stop signs.

And then there was the time that I was with some friends and two of us (my cousin and I) got Minor in Possession (of alcohol… a BAD thing in the US) and the other two of us (my boyfriend and hers) got Supplying to Minors. That time I did get a ticket (and a court date and an evaluation with a psychologist) and when I got my phone call at the police station to call my mom, she said Dad was already on the way. In all honesty, I would have preferred to spend the night in jail than endure the ride home that night.

Oh yes, during my teenage years I cursed the fact that my dad was a cop so many times I lost count. We had huge arguments at home where he accused me of being a rebellious teenager and I accused him of never taking his cop uniform off long enough to remember that he was also a dad.

Once I finally moved out and our relationship cooled enough that we got along again, I looked back at his first years as a police officer and realized that it was tough for him to “leave his uniform at the door” because once you become a cop, you are a role model whether you like it or not. You can either choose not to take the role seriously and become the hypocritical cop that has a secret alcohol problem and spends more time at the donut shop than at the police station or you can become the kind of cop that wants to make a difference in the lives of people by the traditional motto of “protect and serve.” My dad chose the latter and that is why today I am proud of him and think that he deserves all the prestige and responsibility that goes with the title of sheriff.