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| February 3, 2006 Barnstable Patriot |  |
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Open Book
By Stew Goodwin
columnist@barnstablepatriot.com
L
ike it or not, personal-privacyas we
havetraditionallyknownitisbecom-
ing a thing of the past.
A combination of increasingly sophis-
ticated technology and the need for a
response to a series of extraordinary
threats have conspired to produce this
obsolescence. Nonetheless,there isenough
time for our citizens to determine with
care exactly what confidentially and civil
liberties might mean in the
world they face today.
The recent revelation that
the National SecurityAgency
(NSA),actingunder executive
order, was conducting secret
surveillance on American
citizens who were suspected
of communicatingwithknown
terrorists served to underline atrend that
had been in place for several years. This
trend is the progressive dismantling of
the walls supposedly protecting the in-
ner workings of our lives. The world has
changed, technology has changed, but to
what degree have the fundamental con-
cepts of privacy changed?
For decades a group of corporations
has been amassing data on credit card
transactions,Internet activities,andindi-
vidualfinancialconditions. This datahave
been massaged and repackaged for sale.
The information has also been available
to private investigators and government
agencies. Thus, a fairly complete picture
of our personal lives is already exposed
to outside scrutiny. Recent attempts to
gather even more information have raised
the question of where the boundaries of
scrutiny should lie.
One boundary determinant will depend
on the outcome of the battle to encrypt
sensitive computerized transmissions
of personal information , such as credit
card numbers. On one side are business
interests who argue that a guarantee of
confidentiality is critical to the encour-
agement of commerce. On the other
side is the government claiming that
countering terrorism and international
crime requires access to transactional
information.
Identity theft and other sophisticated
criminal pursuits, Internet solicitations
of all sorts, and national security in an
age of global terror have added new lay-
ers of complexity for privacy advocates
to ponder. While challenges to the NSA
surveillanceprogram have asserted that it
existed outside the law,the lawsspecifically
passed by Congress, the Foreign Intel-
ligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the
Patriot Act, authorize completely secret
incursions into areas previously defended
by civil liberties.
In an attempt to expand the use of tech-
nologyto increase safety, the Department
of Transportation is attempting to put
a "black box" similar to those placed in
commercial aircraft in every automobile.
The stated purpose is driver
protection,but the data gath-
ered would be available only
to authorities, and not to
vehicle operators. Now that
somany of our daily activities
are technology-driven,conve-
nience has become at least
partially offset by vulnerabil-
ity. Therefore , all of us must
weigh just how much of our lives should
properly be an open book, and exactly for
what reasons.
The expansionofexecutive branch power
coupled with tremendous technological
advances is continually bringing fresh
privacy issues to the surface. Terrorism
has arrived on our shores.The potential for
nefarious cyber invasions has never been
greater.Undoubtedly in some cases speed
and secrecy can be appropriate protective
weapons. But, if the currency required to
pay for these assets is civil liberties, we
must determineverythoughtfully the level
of cost we are willing to support.
Given that a greater portion of our lives
than we imagine may already be a book
open to those who wish to inspect it, we
should review painstakingly whether and
how to protect the rest. This will not be
an easy process lending itself to knee-jerk
reactions.
As with most issues,there are trade-offs
inherent in this one. They can,and should,
be debated publicly. However, before any
meaningful debate can take place, we
need to find out the full extent to which
our privacy may have been compromised
already. Among all the serious issues
confronting our nation these days, the
trade-off between possible security and
the certain loss of civil liberties may be
the most important.
I FTTF1K
LE11ERj
Thanks, but I live in Osterville
I am Arthur F.Clark, the speaker at the
United Methodist ChurchLiteraryTea, and
author of the book Until He Died, which
you highlighted inyour A&E section of this
past week's edition.
I'd like to thank you and Jim Coogan for
the article. I think it was a wonderful job,
and I can't tell you how many people have
stopped me on the street to voice their
agreement and inquire about the book. I
couldn't have written a better review!
There was one minor omission in the
article:The fact that I've lived in Osterville
for the past 42years,and not YarmouthPort
where I was born and grew to adulthood.
Again, many thanks.
Arthur F.Clark
Osterville
Operation In From The Cold
needs your help
Operation In From The Cold, the short-
term, emergency shelter/service program
for Cape Cod's chronically homeless, is
running out of funds.
The Operation , designed to get the
most vulnerable of the region's homeless
population out of the elements during the
severe wintermonths,needs help from in-
dividuals, organizations, and other towns
to continue its work.
Initiated by the Town of Barnstable's
Human .Services Committee, Operation
In From The Cold has placed a dozen of
the most criticallyin-need homeless and is
providing them with services to help them
become contributing members of society
once again.
The totalestimated cost of the program
for the months of January, February and
Marchis$45,000. Funds,includinga$10,000
donation from the Townof Barnstable (de-
rived from trusts set aside for the needy),
have enabled the Operation to function
for the past month.
February is upon us and there are two
more months of winter weather. Please
help this worthwhile endeavor with a
tax-deductible donation in any amount
sent to "Operation In From The Cold,"c/o
Cape Cod Council of Churches, Box 758,
Hyannis MA 02601.
With sincere thanks,
Janice L. Barton
Barnstable Town Councilor,
Human Services Committee Liaison
Lottery shuffle won't help
much
Uncapping the Lottery will bring the
Cape some money, but did you know that
Lottery proceeds are distributed accord-
ing to the Education Formula of 1993,
which expired in 2000, that has never been
revamped according to the requirements
of the statute?
You may remember that, when the Lot-
tery was created, it was sold as a way of
relieving tax payers by pickingup some of
the cost of education for cities and towns.
Of course,that was until Tom Birmingham
got his socialist hands on the formula, and
decided that he would redistribute the
wealth right into the Chelsea bankbook.
Wemay get some crumbs,but the bulk of
the Lottery proceeds willfollow the bulk of
the Chapter 70money right intothe gullets
of the existing beneficiaries.
While even New Bedford had drifted
down to a state reimbursement rate in the
90percent bracket ,makingour 5.3percent
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:12
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wiw*ft«
BY JOHH WMTERS I
jwatters@barnstablepatriot.com
I
was walking through the woods of Camp
Greenough Boy Scout camp last weekend,
taking a hike on an beautiful, unseason-
ably warm Saturday. While stopped by a
marshy bog to rest, I saw swarms of tiny flying
bugs coining out of the ground, circling up
eight or nine feet, and buzzing back down.
The week before, I saw, washed up from the
previous night's rain on a cement walkway at
St. Mary's Church in Barnstable , the carcass-
es of dozens of night crawlers.
Strange sights indeed for late January.Will
we have bull frogs raining down next? What
does this February have in store? At my
house, there are plenty of robins singing; some
mornings they're joined by cardinals and put
on quite a concert.
Where, oh where, has the winter gone?
Nowhere, actually. Why, just my mentioning
of the unseasonableness of the season could
jinx it, and we could get dumped on. We could
have drifts as high as Honest Abe's beard by
the 12th. And by the 22nd Papa Washington's
axe could be buried under a snow bank just
when you want a little cherry wood to stoke
up the wood stove. I know I tread on thin ice
if I prematurely dismiss the winter of '05-06 as
a paper snowman.
In my mittens, my fingers are crossed wish-
ing it's true. I can't be too far off because the
earth's axis is starting to tilt toward the sun in
our favor.
Every week without snow is one week closer
to spring, without SNOW. By the end of Febru-
ary. I don't care how much white stuff gets
dumped on us. The sun's strengthening rays
won't allow it to stay around for weeks at a
time like it can this time of the year.
I wonder what the Native Americans a few
hundred years ago thought when the gray
clouds brought rain and not snow. They prob-
ably cursed it. It is much easier to track game
with a little fresh snow on the ground. To a
hunter, deer or rabbit tracks shined bright
on new-fallen snow much as the illuminated
McDonald's golden arches do to us modern-
day gatherers.
February is the month of the Klondike
Derby, and a little snow surely is a help for
that. The Klondike Derby is the Boy Scout's
equivalent of the Iditarod. Held at Camp Gre-
enough, it's the ultimate competition between
Cape troops to test a boy Scout's ability to
challenge the harsh winter elements. Building
wooden sleds, constructing rope bridges, ford-
ing streams, cooking hot dogs over an open
fire , stuff and such of that nature.
When I was about 11 years old, and a proud
member of Barnstable Village's Boy Scout
Troop 56, 1participated in one of those. I'd
like to envision it now like Sgt. Preston yell-
ing, "On, King! On, you huskies," as we dashed
through the slush and snow like we were on
our way to Grandmother's house.
But the reality of it was we didn't have dogs
to pull our sled; we had fellow troop mates.
And it was a winter like this when we didn't
have snow. Trudging through mud pulling a
homemade wooden sled that had to weigh
precisely 100 pounds was not on any recruit-
ment brochure that I read.
Remember that, except for the lead dog,
what the view is for the rest of the pack...let's
just say you see more britches than blue sky.
I know it's all supposed to build teamwork
and perseverance and all that, but it wasn't
fun. The three-mile course was long and tough
without snow to grease our skids. Every ten
feet we would hit an exposed rock and after
awhile the very integrity of our homemade
sled was challenged. Some troops crossed
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:12
On my honor, it's the truth
# 1 1 1 I i \ I Limerick of the Week m^^^^S^-^. ®fa Barnstable patriot
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^ mm I I About that S.U. Address FEBRUARY 3, 2006
1 I I ¦
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§ BY MAUREEN CONNELLY And the Energy mess,
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CORNER
By Paul Gauvin |
pgauvin@barnstablepatriot.corr
C
ritics may as well have sprayed the
word "betrayal" in black paint over
Gov.Mitt Romney's rosy pre-bud-
get canvas for Barnstable schools in 2007.
Town Councilor Janet Joakim was
first to e-mail her disappointment when
the governor's proposed budget figures
were released last week, highlighting the
Chapter 70 (school aid) column like this:
"Notice in Chapter 70 WE LOSE," she
wrote. The figures showed Barnstable get-
ting $33,698 less in fiscal 2007.
But keep in mind enrollment has de-
clined drastically in Barnstable schools by
716 since 2002 -though it may rise again
with the current spurt of new housing.
The governor's budget takes decreased
enrollment into consideration, hence the
reduction in aid. What is patently unfair
about this is that when the Barnstable
school population was growing, the state
did not increase its aid. But that was then
and this is now.
Joakim has poured a lot of sweat equity
into the effort for parity in statewide
school funding and is entitled to be more
disillusioned than most. But some people
drink Coke while others prefer Pepsi. In
this case, the governor has an objective
statewide view while aggrieved parochials
are being, quite naturally, poor-me subjec-
tive.
State Sen. Rob O'Leary, faced with a
challenge in the next election, said he was
"stunned" by the disparity between the
promise and the payout. Let Mr. O'Leary
be reminded however that while no man
should put asunder what God has joined
together, what the Republican gover-
nor hath put together in his budget the
Democratic Legislature could tweak -but
probably won't for lack of a consensus.
The Legislature has until July 1to
present the governor with its own com-
promise, meaning that O'Leary, fellow
Sen. Theresa Murray, she of the powerful
Ways and Means Committee, and Rep.
Demetrius Atsalis have their work cut out
for them along with other legislators ag-
grieved by the old formula.
The problem is, the governor did what
the critics wanted. He added median
income considerations to the formula.
But like President Bush's ill-advised
experiment with democratic elections in
Palestine that gave terrorists a victory,
those who wanted a changed school aid
formula and got one have, like Bush, just
experienced the law of unintended conse-
quences.
Barnstable cannot overlook, also, that
there is a net gain in local aid to the tune
of $885,932 for the town. On the surface, it
appears the governor did his best to ap-
pease all concerned statewide, but if that
isn't enough, it is up to the Legislature to
continue the equity search if, indeed, dis-
parity still exists to the point of bald-faced
injustice. In that arena, don't look for sym-
pathy from urban legislators who still get
the biggest piece of education aid pie.
Local officials might find at this point
that moderating the time and effort put
into the state search for equity might be
better placed tryingto find local solu-
tions to the school-funding enigma, one
of which would not include hiring a new
school superintendent at a one-year salary
hike of $30,000 or more.
As to equity, this column has often
pointed out there is only one fairformula:
State-fund each child with about $8,000
and let the money follow the child.
It's parity at its best, but is it moral
in a society of airy-fairy ideals that the
strong must help the weak? Should kids
in a wealthy community like Newton who
don't need it get as much state help as
the vulnerable children who live under
the threat of drive-by shootings and the
myriad depravities of extreme poverty in
Boston's ghettoes?
Beautiful Barnstable - and the Cape
for that matter -has been bushwhacked
by its own real estate success. Property
values are reaching for the clouds and if it
isn't a really wealthy community because
of a skewed low median income (wealthier
non-resident home owners do not count),
it fools a lot of outsiders who read the real
estate ads and are wowed by the selling
price.
If you bought a house here in 1980 for
$63,000 and it is now valued largely by rule
of supply and demand at $390,000 - are
you rich or poor compared to Roxbury's
overcharged apartment dwellers?
Barnstable residential taxpayers can be
consoled by the net increase in state aid
and, lest we forget , the 20 percent residen-
tial tax exemption passed by the council
that gives average homeowners a roughly
$500 gift.
Continue the diligence, but let's not get
too greedy.
t
Battle for schoolaidparityhas
unintended consequence