To the editor:

When I read about city commissioners spending hours of debate over a proclamation to oppose and disobey the Patriot Act, I was very amused. Don’t you have some potholes to fill? You seem to be suffering from delusions of grandeur that your little proclamation is really going to make a difference. Maybe you should debate something useful like how to provide health coverage for every individual in Lawrence.

I know it’s easy to bravely tell your police force not to cooperate with the Patriot Act. After all, we don’t have a big bull’s-eye painted on us. What are they going to blow up? The Kansas University Campanile? You don’t see New York City or Boston or Miami telling their police force not to cooperate with the FBI. I am sure you would be much more contrite if, due to the Patriot Act, a plot was foiled to blow up our hospital or even City Hall. Since you want to disregard a federal law, can I go ahead and just disregard my parking ticket?

It is true that I have my own reservations about the Patriot Act. I am very glad that it has a sunset clause in it. So why don’t you circulate a petition against making the Patriot Act permanent? Give this petition to your U.S. congressmen. They are the ones who actually have the power to make the Patriot Act go away. If they don’t act, vote them out. That is how a real government works.

David Busenitz,

Tecumseh