U.S. census 2000 (off topic)

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Please forgive me if this is somewhat off topic :-)

We are required by law to respond to the census survey. One person in six
is given the "long form" to complete. Mary and I completed ours today and
decided not to respond substantively to most of the items, which ask for
detailed information which in our view violates our right to privacy, such
as the details of our sources of income, the value of our assets,
including our home, our ethnicity and racial heritage (whatever that
means), languages we might speak other than English and how well we might
speak them, and on and on. The constitution specifies a count of all
persons every ten years, but the Bill of Rights protects us against
invasion of privacy. The penalty for insisting on our rights will be a
$100 fine (probably per person) but we are willing to bear that burden to
draw a line in the sand. If you feel as we do, I hope you will consider a
similar assertion of your rights.

Chuck and Mary Hallenbeck

My web site is http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh (I C Q = 67363342)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759.