Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Yesterday, just a few hours after the news broke that George W. Bush and Michael Hayden have been running a program with the goal to collect information about every single telephone call ever made within the United States, I took a flight up to Toronto, Canada.

As soon as I got through customs, I felt a huge sense of relief that surprised me. I felt that I could relax. I knew that I wasn’t going to be listened to, that my telephone calls were not going to be entered into a database.

Right after that relief came a guilty reaction, and a sadness. I shouldn’t feel relief when taking a trip out of my country. I shouldn’t feel that way about leaving the USA.

It isn’t just America’s reputation in the world that has been damaged by our government’s attacks on liberty. It’s our own sense of pride and dignity.

I feel cleaner now that I’m in Canada on this trip, and that reaction makes me feel dirty.