Another Family Found To Be Unaffected by Patriot Act
SUFFOLK, VA - When asked if he felt any constrictions on his personal life due to the USA Patriot Act, Harold Safely seemed a bit offended. "We're not terrorists," he sternly stated, "We proudly support President Bush and the United States in all their actions. The Patriot Act isn't for red blooded Americans who love their country, its for the terrors who fear the freedom we have."
The Safely family lives in a quiet suburb where Harold drives 5.3 miles a day to & from his job at an office where he sells advertising for the local paper, The Suffolk News Herald. Harold's wife, Janice, raised 2 children and now devotes her daytime hours to The Church of the Solid Rock of the Apostolic Faith. Their children, Margaret, age 22, and Peter, age 25, both graduated from Christ College in Lynchburg, VA.
"I didn't even know what the heck the Patriot Act was until I went to a town fair and noticed some hippies totally being aggressive, trying to get people to sign some petition fighting the act. I avoided them the best I could until I got back to my car and found that someone had put a piece of paper [flyer] on my windshield saying that the Patriot Act was 'imposing on my civil rights.' I was like, 'whatever, get a job & wash those dreadlocks!' Margaret recalls her first discovery of what has become a controversial issue since late 2001, when Attn. General John Ashcroft's committee designed the USA Patriot Act, a collection of laws allowing the government to better fight terror post 9/11.
"I don't understand why these people have a problem with it." Peter Safely said, "Unless of course they, too, are terrorists! Which, believe me, if I had seen what they were doing to the kind people at the town fair I wouldn't have waited one moment to alert the police about their suspicious behavior." Peter Safely is now pursuing his masters degree in Education Leadership, which he wants to use to teach back in his home town of Suffolk Virginia.
"These kids these days, their minds are being constantly infected with so many sour sources of hate and greed and paranoia. I just hope to show them that it's okay to trust your government, your president, your priest, and most importantly, yourself."
"Amen," said the Safely family in what seemed like an angelic harmony.
Already Harold & Janice have notified the authorities 5 times since 9/11/01 regarding what they believed was "suspicious behavior" by people they have encountered in their lives. "One day, the gas station attendant at the Exxon stared a little too long at my credit card," Harold recalls, "After that I called the police and have since then been buying my gas at Shell, where Michael & Rose's kid Sam works". I certainly feel a lot more secure over there now, even if the police didn't find anything illegal at that place."
Janice recalls once when she was on the telephone trying to obtain technical support for the family computer, "The man on the other end had some funny voice and I couldn't understand what he was saying most of the time. He kept telling me to delete files and upload software, and finally I realized that there was no way of knowing what this man was doing to our computer, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. Once I got him on the phone I asked for the support man's name and called the police to inform them that potential terror could be occurring at the Dell technical support offices. I just hope they got the guy before he ruined anyone else's computer."
Although no arrests have been made from any of the Safely's suspicions, they still believe they're doing the right thing. Quoting President Bush in his State of the Union Address, Peter said, "Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity."
Harold looked proudly at his son after reciting those lines, "That's my boy, an intelligent, smart, and bright child that the Lord has blessed us with."
"This Patriot Act has done nothing but good, if you've got nothing to hide, then why should you worry about it? It's only causing unnecessary stress and that is never good for anyone!" Janice said.
As for the Patriot Act, this reporter will continue to search for anyone who is not a terror suspect yet still feels for some reason that it affects their daily lives.
