Maybe you’ve seen them: a series of public service ads launched in the US on July 4 with the theme of “Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it.” The 6 PSAs (RealMedia format), with the titles of “Main Street USA“, “Church“, “Library“, “Diner“, “Arrest“, and “Choice“, are simple, understated, quiet, and amid an ocean of noisy advertisements, screaming for our attention, their subtlety should grab the viewer.

Of the ads, I find “Library” most chilling. A young man walks up to a library info desk and tells the middle-aged female librarian that he can’t find the books on his list. Taking the list from the man, the librarian begins typing into the computer whose screen we cannot see. She gets a strange look on her face, looks past him, and tells him that these books are no longer available. “I didn’t know,” he says. She asks for his name, and he asks what for, then starts to leave, nervously looking around. His exit is interrupted by two suited men who rise from tables along the aisle. He protests, and they say, “We just want to ask you a few questions”, while we see the saddened look on the librarian’s face. A title is superimposed, saying “What if America wasn’t America?”, before fading to a waving flag and the “Freedom…” tag phrase.

The other story-like spots — churchgoers having to meet clandestinely, men afraid to talk dissent in public, a kid being arrested for trafficking in newspapers — seem far-fetched, and their “What if America wasn’t America?” tagline seems to strengthen the dystopic fantasy. But the “Library” spot… there’s nothing fantastic about it.

The USA PATRIOT Act, passed hurriedly in response to the events of September 11, gives law enforcement agencies broad powers to obtain library and bookstore records regarding who is reading what. According to James X. Dempsey, writing the the Winter 2002 issue of the American Bar Association’s Human Rights magazine, the FBI

… can go into a public library and ask for the records on everybody who ever used the library, or who used it on a certain day, or who checked out certain kinds of books.

They can do this “… merely on the claim that the information is ‘sought for’ an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” There is no warrant necessary, no probable cause, no prohibition against “shopping expeditions”, nothing that requires — in fact, a prohibition against — notifying the subject or subjects of the search at any time in the future. “What if America wasn’t America?”, indeed.