our connecticut librarians are tough mothas!

i for one salute your principals and your strength!

Librarians bitterly decry gag order in Patriot Act case
By Frank Eltman, Associated Press Writer May 31, 2006
NEW YORK --Recently released from a months-long gag order, four librarians from Connecticut did little to hide their displeasure about the FBI's demands for records about library patrons under the Patriot Act.
"I am incensed that the government uses provisions of the Patriot Act to justify unrestrained and secret access to the records of libraries," said George Christian, of Windsor, Conn., who along with three others spoke out Tuesday for the first time since the gag order was lifted.
"Free public libraries exist in this country to promote democracy by allowing the public to inform itself on the issues of the day. The idea that the government can secretly investigate what the public is informing itself about is chilling," said Christian, executive director of the Library Connection, Inc., a consortium of libraries in the central part of the state.
U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted, saying it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten. But it wasn't until April that prosecutors dropped an appeal of that order.
Speaking at a press conference organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the librarians, Christian noted with irony that the gag order was lifted only after Congress voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act.
"The fact that I can speak now is a little like being permitted to call the fire department only after a building has burned to the ground," he said..........