Today, 54 years after the Korematsu decision, Covington partners are again paying for the representation of despised, supposed enemies of U.S. national security. Fallkoff represents 17 men locked up in Guantanamo. The first time he went there, he said, he was surprised to learn that his client had written him a poem. More poems followed. Falkoff had, in addition to his law degree, a Ph.D. in Literature. Poems piqued his curiosity. He began to wonder how many other prisoners were writing poetry. It turned out, several were. Possibly many. He conceived the idea of collecting and publishing those poems. The military officers running Guantanamo, however, disapproved. They disapproved of the project and of the poems themselves. One intelligence officer intoned, “Poetry represents an enhanced national security threat.”

Ho, what happy words for protest poets ’round the world! Byron writing on behalf of the Greeks, Elizabeth Barrett Browning scribbling stanzas for the Italians, and so many others seeking through verse the liberation of their fellows longed for the effectiveness that the U.S. Pentagon fears. The mighty quake before the slender pen of the poet!

At least, the mighty quake before the possible disapproval of their superiors.

Falkoff was able, after months of negotation with military censors, to publish an 84-page volume, Poems from Guantanamo. The poems appear in English. The authors wrote their poems in Arabic, Pashto, and English. The original Arabic and Pashto texts don’t appear in the book, though. The censors were afraid that they might contain coded messages.

The Guardian (U.K.) ran a review of the book last year. Falkoff read one of the poems for us that night, “Death Poem,” by Jumah al Dossari:

Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.

Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.

And let them bear the guilty burden before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors or peace.”

Fallkoff said that he donates all the revenues from the book’s sales to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The CCR is a non-profit law firm in New York that takes on human rights cases. It was CCR lawyers who first won for the Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal court. Take a look at the book. You can consider donating a copy to your local library.

Marcus knows that–and explains why–all the measures put in place by the Department of Homeland Security in San Francisco are expensive, time-wasting, intrusive, and fruitless. He knows abuse of power when he sees it.

Marcus is the protagonist of Little Brother, a 2008 young-adult book by Cory Doctorow. Doctorow is a writer, activist, and co-editor of BoingBoing who would prefer that people start standing up for themselves and alongside one another, starting with understanding what all this gadgetry can do against us and for us. He has had the pleasure of seeing his book leap onto the New York Times Bestseller List for young people.

Little Brother came out just in time. Its call to action is more urgent that most of us realize. A computer-abetted lockdown of an entire city isn’t only feasible, it’s happening, today, in China. The Communist Party, the Red Army, and internal intelligence officials are conducting an experiment in Shenzhen, a high-tech manufacturing center near Hong Kong. The experiment is called Golden Shield. To promote harmony and safety, all communication is recorded: land lines, cell phones, email, the Internet. All movement is monitored: by closed-circuit televisions, traffic check points, and frequent ID checks of pedestrians. Naomi Klein reported this story in the May 29, 2008, edition of Rolling Stone.

She discovered that the closed-circuit televisions in China use facial recognition software imported–possibly in violation of U.S. federal law–by an American company called L-1. Other surveillance software has come from IBM, Honeywell, and General Electric. When those companies, and the Chinese companies working with them, have fine-tuned their products, to whom shall they sell them next? Who would like to buy them?

In Los Altos, California, on May 22, Doctorow pointed out that people who seek to command and control their fellows first test their surveillance tools on those who can’t speak up. They pick as test subjects state and federal prisoners, mental patients, immigrants, and even well-to-do airline passengers afraid of missing their flight. When Naomi Klein flew back into JFK airport, she was invited to apply for a Fly Clear card. It would let her skip airports’ carry-on baggage search and X-ray lines. If she applies, she will have her photograph taken, her fingerprints recorded, and her irises scanned. Those biometric data will be encoded on her Fly Clear card, courtesy of a U.S. company called L-1.

Many adults feel too harried or powerless to challenge surveillance. Tens of thousands of them can’t even get their names deleted from the No-Fly List. Children and teenagers, though, have more time and lots more energy. I’ve met 11 and 13 year-olds who love Little Brother. Doctorow, in Los Altos, said that the Berkeley High School students he talked to were fired up about it. Thank goodness for Berkeley. This adult feels rallied and ready to take on the Total Surveillance States. Enough with photographing CCTV’s on World Sousveillance Day. How can we help the people of Shenzhen creep out from under the heavy boot of Big Brother? How those of us over and under age 25 make sure this scenario does not strangle our own countries? I’m starting by giving away many copies of Little Brother. It describes tools to start with and it’s an exhilerating adventure. This land was made for you and me. Take it back!