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Washington Times March 17, 2000CENSUS INTRUSIONS ARE A THREAT TO FREEDOMby James Bovard "There are three certainties in life -- death, taxes and the continuation
of the Census Bureau's proud tradition of keeping information it collects
about individuals strictly private." So announces the Census Bureau's web
page, seeking to assure Americans that they have nothing to fear by opening
their lives to the prying of this year's Census. Regrettably, after seven years of the Clinton administration, some
Americans may be a little skeptical about this "trust us - we're the
government" line. And, considering the Census Bureau's dark history,
people have plenty of reason to fear that their answers could be used
against them. In l942, the Census Bureau made up a special list telling the U.S.
Army how many Japanese-Americans lived in each neighborhood in the U.S.
The Army used the Census lists to send out trucks to round up
Japanese-Americans for internment camps during World War II. Census Bureau spokeswoman Paula Schneider stressed that, because the
Census Bureau did not disclose the specific names and addresses of Japanese
Americans, it did not compromise the confidentiality of Census respondents.
Ms. Schneider noted, "unfortunately, what was used was data for small
geographic areas that showed where the Japanese lived." This is like
someone claiming they have no responsibility for setting loose a wolf on
your street that just happened to gnarl your leg - simply because they
didn't set the wolf free at your doorstep and tell the wolf to bite you
personally. Why should Americans believe that the Census Bureau would be more
trustworthy than the White House? In 1993-94, the Clinton White House
illegally requested and received from the FBI 900 confidential background
files that the FBI had compiled on Bush and Reagan administration nominees.
When news of this abuse surfaced in 1996, Clinton shrugged off the gross
violation of privacy as a "completely honest bureaucratic snafu."
Congressional investigators recently discovered that the White House had
wrongfully refused to turn over thousands of subpoenaed emails regarding
the use and abuse of the files. No White House official has faced a
serious prospect of jail time for breaking the law. Federal law states that "in no case shall [census] information be
used to the detriment of any respondent or other persons to whom such
information relates." But, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office,
census responses have also been used for government housing code
crackdowns. Responses are especially helpful in allowing local
governments to know where to carry out raids for allegedly overcrowded
housing. When asked about such uses of Census data, Ms. Schneider replied:
"You balance the need for small area data with the possibility that it
could possibly be used for purposes for which it was not intended." Such
housing crackdowns sometimes appear little more than a pretext to evict
blacks, Hispanics, or other low-income people. The information the Census gathers will help fuel new government
interventions. A Census Bureau press release noted that "Race data are
required... to assess racial disparities in health and environmental
risks." This is part of the Clinton administration's "environmental
justice" campaign - an effort to portray routine business decisions as part
of a racist conspiracy. These policies have helped discourage new
factories from locating in areas of high unemployment. The Census Bureau is also trying to whip up enthusiasm by telling people
of all the federal benefits their localities will receive thanks to their
cooperation. The Census has degenerated from a method of counting the
population into a scheme for generating grist for the expansion of the
welfare state. Information on occupations is used to construct
affirmative action quotas for different industries. Information on "place
of birth" is used by the Civil Rights Commission as a baseline for
determining discrimination by national origin. Information on home
value and rental levels is used by housing agencies to establish subsidy
programs. Census Director Kenneth Prewitt declared that people's Census answers
affect "power, money, group interests, civil rights; in short, who gets how
much of what." But the federal government has no right to dictate "who
gets how much of what." The Census, by providing reams of information,
allows politicians to further manipulate people's lives. The more
information government collects, the more control government can exert. The Constitution mandates that an enumeration of the citizenry be
conducted every ten years in order to apportion seats in the House of
Representatives. Citizens should refuse to answer any Census question
except for the number of residents at an address. A partial boycott of the
Census questionnaire is necessary to safeguard our liberties.Tagline: Bovard is the author of Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State & the Demise of the Citizen (St. Martin's Press, 1999). [http://www.jamesbovard.com]