Los Altos Voices for Peace, together with the Los Altos Library and the Mountain View-Los Altos League of Women Voters, organized a forum on the USA PATRIOT Act and the threats it poses to civil liberties. The forum was held in a packed room at the Hillview Center in Los Altos. Former mayor James Thurber moderated the meeting. The panelists were Professor Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of Stanford, Ms. Samina Faheem, Executive Director of American Muslim Voice, and Ms. Cheryl Houts, Community Librarian.
After the presentations by the panelists, there were many questions from the audience. The forum participants were clearly moved by the lucid analysis of the Act by Professor Cuéllar, by the horrifying experiences of immigrants in this country since the Act was adopted as related by Ms. Faheem, and by the resolute position of the community library as well as the national American Library Association on defending the right of the people to read what they choose and to do so with full privacy.
