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Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis Brandeis, 19271
Fear...cannot be allowed to determine the policies and practices of the American Library Association, just as a practicing librarian should certainly never succumb to the censor for fear that his own salary or budget will suffer. If we believe in the importance of intellectual freedom, we must be willing to take risks in order to defend it. ACONDA Report, 19712
KEYWORDS: American Library Association - Committee on Legislation; American Library Association - Council; American Library Association - Conferences, 2013; American Library Association - Intellectual Freedom Committee; American Library Association - Social Responsibilities Round Table; Censorship; Government accountability; Government intimidation; Intellectual freedom; National Security Agency; Privacy; Right to know; Right to privacy; Snowden, Edward; Surveillance; Whistleblowers.
Privacy - a state of being for which one closes a door, steps a short distance away, hangs out the "Do not disturb" sign - is required for any communication not yet ready for public consumption, whether conveyed via scribbled note, telephone call, text message, or scrawled across a diary "PRIVATE, do NOT read! Mom, that means y-o-u!" One utters the phrase "May I have a private word?" and communicates an implicit expectation of trust to both the invited and the excluded (hopefully without offense to the later). Privacy, whether within the confines of one's own skull, between two or more individuals, is a requisite condition for grappling with personal troubles, for the tentative working through of new ideas, for arriving at a decision, for implementing a plan. Extended to another or others as the need arises, privacy is a human necessity. Children will choose to be mute, to keep their thoughts private rather than risk ridicule, correction, or rejection. Adolescents refuse to...