The 2010 Census and Uncle Dick

By: Jim Moss

What will you do if a 2010 Census Taker knocks on your door to gather information about the occupants of your dwelling?  Be prepared — because this may happen to you soon.  The United States Government — you know, that BIG sinister thing from Washington D.C. — wants to know who is really living behind your closed doors, wants to know if you believe America is a Christian nation, if you own any guns & know how to use them, and wants to know if you have any cash, gold, or diamonds stashed under the mattress.

The 2010 Census, like none other heretofore, will be digging for the most private information about you (that even your closest friends & neighbors do not know) — based upon the new federal mandate personally formulated by Barack Hussein Obama.  Sound far-fetched?  Not to lots of folks these days who believe Obama is the ‘Anti-Christ’, or think that health insurance reform is a sign of the coming apocalypse.

At what point does healthy skepticism of government turn into unhealthy paranoia about a bogey-man that does not exist?  As with beauty, REALITY is in the eye of the beholder.  The prism through which each of us views the world and tries to make sense of chaos and complexity, is a prism totally unique to one individual.  Knowledge, experience, beliefs, ignorance, prejudice, fears, emotions — all mixed together to create one unique prism, one unique person.

So…back to the Census.  Recently, I listened to U.S. Congresswoman, Michelle Bachman (R-MN), express deep wariness that the 2010 Census may represent unusual government intrusion into a citizen’s privacy.  She claimed that President Franklin D. Roosevelt used Census information  to identify Japanese Americans during WWII, which facilitated placing these citizens into internment camps for the duration of the war.  Much of what Rep. Bachman says must be taken with a BIG grain of salt — but, she makes a legitimate case in this instance, IF her historical citation is accurate.  Certainly, a review of American History provides ample evidence of actions taken by the federal government that violated law and civil liberties.  Civil Libertarians on both Right  & Left of the political spectrum are wary of unchecked government powers and intrusions into private lives.  The fact that our society produces civil libertarians at both ends of the political spectrum, sheds a light on what I mean about an individual’s unique prism of the world.  For example, how can it be that the very person who is now super suspicious of the upcoming 2010 Census, defended the actions of Bush/Cheney to force(persuade) telecom corporations to eavesdrop on U.S. Citizen’s communications without a lawfully obtained warrant?  It’s that prism thing!  The citizen who sees justification in Bush/Cheney illegal eavesdropping, or imprisonment of detainees without any basic right to trial — views the world through a prism that says something like :  ” National security fears trump civil liberties because I trust Pres. George W. Bush.”  (Of course, using this sort of rationale, leads one to think Rep. Bachman would have supported the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII — if it had been Bush/Cheney instead of FDR who was responsible for this deplorable action).  So, the BIG, BAD federal government isn’t always so big & bad  — depends on who is sitting in the Oval Office or which political party holds power in Congr3ess.  Wonder how many of the folks paranoid about the 2010 Census were as suspicious ten years ago during the 2000 Census — remember, back when the U. S. Supreme Court handed the 2000 Election to George W. Bush, and the Republican Party was in the majority in Congress.  Were these folks so mistrustful of government then?

Well, in sharing these thoughts, it has helped me to decide what to do if a 2010 Census Taker knocks on my door this year.  I am going to cooperate.  I will answer every reasonable question as honestly as my prism permits.  But, I must admit — IF King George & Uncle Dick were still holding the reigns of power in Washington D.C. — I might think twice!