Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Studs Terkel rules

I have been a huge fan of Studs Terkel since I read Working while studying sociology at Indiana University as an undergrad. I attended his speech at NYU while I was working on my master's degree. I am not one for autographs (I may own three or four autographed books out of 2,000+) but I wanted to get my copy of My American Century autographed by him. Unfortunately, he had to leave early because his wife fell ill.

But after today's news, my feelings for the nonagenarian have gone beyond respect. I want to hug him. Terkel has filed suit against AT&T to prevent the company from given his phone records to the NSA without a court order.

Here's what he had to say about the suit:

"Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far."


Hear, hear.