You Won't Know You're Living In A Police State Until After It Happens

I figure I must be on the short list of those likely to have a file created for, ( or added to), John Ashcroft's TIPS program. I've been receiving suspicious packages from individuals with Arab names, from locations both abroad and domestically. I've also received mail from nations of known terrorist activity. I've been shopping on Ebay, you see, and it's often a rather inexplicable experience.

When Levi's announced they were closing their American manufacturing, I developed a yen for 'authentic old-timey American quality' and by-and-by discovered the existence of Levi's 'Vintage' line of perfect re-creations of their old jeans - the product that made their name, built stout like you wouldn't believe in the original Levi factory on Valencia Street in San Francisco. The only problem with the line is that it was priced like Italian couture. Enter Ebay. Through the mysteries of the marketplace and the magic of the Internet, I've been able to obtain a couple examples of these Levi's at some fraction of suggested retail. The first pair came from a guy in London, and is the 1944 issue of the 501, complete with doughnut-hole buttons with the top one featuring a 'laurel wreath of peace' design that was a standard item on WW2 American clothing. The second came from a fellow in Texas, and is a perfect, crisp, re-issue of the zipper style Levi's I wore as a kid in the 50's. My Mom would wash them once and put them on me wet and then send me out to play, so they would shrink down to my actual size. In honor of the occasion, I washed these once and then went for a motorcycle ride. For whatever reason, both these Levi's came from men with Arab names, and judging from their e-mail's, a less than perfect grasp of the English language.

Some tipster might conclude Al Qaeda scored a container load of Vintage Levi's, and now is selling them to support terrorism, I dunno. But the pair from Texas, at least, came complete with a tag from T.J. Max, so I suspect this was simply somebody with a good eye and some entrepreneurial spirit. As I said, I also received mail from a nation which has experienced terrorist activity, in this case Croatia. The item in question is a postcard sealed in plastic, for which I paid $5, of Dan Gurney sitting on the starting grid in his 1967 F-1 Eagle-Westlake. Dan Gurney was the last American-born driver to win a F-1 race, and that year he did it in a car he built himself in Santa Ana, California. The Eagle was one of the most beautiful race cars ever to turn a wheel, and in 1967, arguably the most competitive year in Grand Prix history, Gurney was the only driver able to compete in a straight fight with the immortal Jimmy Clark in the Lotus 49. There were bumper stickers at the time that said 'Dan Gurney for President,' and hey, we've done a lot worse. Since Gurney lives not 30 miles from me, you'd think you'd be able to find something around here that acknowledged his singular achievement - but no, for this great little picture, my source is Croatia. Go figure.

But you see what I'm getting at - each transaction is completely innocent, and yet my mailman, if instructed to notice 'patterns' of deliveries from 'suspicious' sources, could quite easily decide that I fit the 'profile,' and once you fit the 'profile,' then you can bet your last dollar you're going to get your own file, whatever public statements Ashcroft makes to the contrary. Once you have a file, well, you have a file. Having a file will perforce hurt your ability to gain employment, get credit, find a place to live. You are added to the number of all others who have files, allowing Ashcroft or whomever to stand in front of the microphones and say 'We have hundreds of thousands, (or millions) of so-called Americans who we've linked to support of terrorists! Now is not the time to dither about civil liberties!' And so on.

I saw recently where Albert Einstein had an FBI file, and suffered heavy FBI surveillance, purely on J. Edgar Hoover's contention that Einstein was a 'liberal intellectual.' Well, you could say the same of Thomas Jefferson, I suppose. There's a strain of American Protestant culture, finding voice in the GOP hard-right, that holds that to read too far afield from the Bible is sinful; and so the 'liberal intellectual,' with his many books, is branded a danger to morals and the public safety. Will the cable-guy receive a profile of probable anti-American conspirators that consists of 'lot's of books on display in home'? And speaking specifically to Mr. Ashcroft's concerns, what about art? I've got a Renoir litho, an affordable posthumous print to be sure, of a reclining woman that's, you know, nekid. Too many books and bare bosoms - I'm sure to get a file.