I’m just about halfway through listening to Edward Snowden’s new book, Permanent Record, on audio. His description of the information that our government collects about each of us has brought back a memory of my high school math teacher’s railings.
It was the fall of 1960. Like many of my teachers, Mr. Bottaro was a World War II veteran. He lectured that the reason the Nazi party was able to control the German people to such evil ends was that they had accurate and thorough records. They didn’t just know who you were, they knew who your parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts were, and where they worked. We ninth-graders just listened in slack-jawed silence, and never made mention outside of class.
DAN DUSTIN
Concord