Studs Terkel: "During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government."

Things got better, then worse again.

Now: "Congress is moving in a haphazard fashion to provide a 'get out of jail free card' to the telephone companies that violated the rights of their subscribers. Some in Congress argue that this law-breaking is forgivable because it was done to help the government in a time of crisis. But it’s impossible for Congress to know the motivations of these companies or to know how the government will use the private information it received from them."