Blog Posting #2 for Week of May 27

I know a lot of us are going to hit on this particular story this week since it has so much to do with intellectual freedom. I wanted to put my two cents worth in as well! With the new post of "Cyber Czar", has President Obama opened the door for the government to position itself as a major controlling power over the Internet and Internet access?

"It's now clear this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation," Obama said, adding, "We're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country."

Created mainly to protect national security and the economic sector, the office of cyber security will allow the government unprecedented access to monitoring computer networks. Although Obama promises to keep the office tight and in his control, can he really guarantee that this step is not the first towards the Big Brother society depicted in the novel 1984? With the grid in place, how easy would it be to expand influence over private Internet access during a time of war or terrorism? If the infrastructure is in place, what's to stop inacting the Partiot Act to include the monitoring of individual access in the name of national security? Who decides what that is, anyway?

Accoding to the story Obama "... made it clear that the new cyber security effort will not involve any monitoring of private networks or individual e-mail accounts. The Internet, he said, should remain open and free."

I'm beginning to wonder about that. Maybe Little Brother is starting to get to me a little bit. Oh, and by the way, what part will the DHS play in this office?

Link to the full story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30998004/

The 5-Point Plan:

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/obamas_five_point_security_plan

The White House Blog:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CyberReview/

Blog Posting for week of May 20th

This past week, one of the topics we've been discussing is challenged books. I found something interesting about challenges and self censorship.

In an article by Paul McMasters for the First Amendment Center, he exalts libraries as the last bastions of first amendment rights, where other institutions who are supposed to be protecting these rights are failing. Even though Mr. McMasters is referring to the library itself, where does the library board of trustees fit into his scenerio? What happened here is kind of the ultimate in self censorship. The FTRF, the OIF and the Library Bill of Rights all support the patron's right to choose. In particular, if that right is taken away, then according to the Library Bill of Rights, the library "should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment."

In Gulfport, Miss., the Jackson-George Regional Library System board of trustees banned Jon Stewart's book, "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction", because it showed Supreme Court Justice's faces on naked bodies, showing full frontal nudity. As a result of the ban, the board received significant criticism from people both locally and out of state, and it reversed it's decision. Evidently, they discovered that reading a book is a lot like watching TV. If you don't want to read it or watch it, choose something else. The following is a direct quote from the article: "We have come under intense scrutiny by the outside community," said David Ables, board chairman. "We don't decide for the community whether to read this book or not, but whether to make it available."

My opinion is that a board of trustees is set up to protect the organization that it represents, and is bound by the same tenents as the organization itsef, in this case the eight libraries of the Jackson-George Regional library system. It is a form of self censorship to, in effect, challenge the book that they are bound to protect based on the Library Bill of Rights. In this case, the board censored it's libraries, and then reconsidered its own decision (challenge) and reversed the ban.

References

McMasters, Paul K.. "firstamendmentcenter.org: Libraries & First Amendment in Speech - Overview." firstamendmentcenter.org: Welcome to the First Amendment Center Online. 22 May 2009 .

Press, The Associated. "firstamendmentcenter.org: news." firstamendmentcenter.org: Welcome to the First Amendment Center Online. 22 May 2009 .

May 6, 2009

I really look forward to spending time with everyone this summer.