Letter to Booksellers from ABA COO Oren Teicher

Dear Book Sense Booksellers:

Last year, booksellers and librarians made amazing progress in our effort to restore the protections for customer privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act.

In early 2003, we had a hard time getting anyone to even listen to our concern that the Patriot Act gives the FBI free rein to search bookstore records. Then a remarkable grassroots campaign undertaken by Vermont booksellers and librarians attracted the attention of U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In March, Representative Sanders introduced the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157), the first bill to restrict the power granted by the Patriot Act.

By the end of the year, three states and over 200 communities around the country had passed anti-Patriot Act resolutions. H.R. 1157 had 143 co-sponsors, and similar legislation had been introduced in the Senate. In fact, we raised such a ruckus that Attorney General John Ashcroft was forced to tour the country trying to build support for the Patriot Act.

But we still have a hard fight ahead, and we are determined to redouble our efforts to amend the Patriot Act… and, we need your help and participation.

The centerpiece of this year's campaign will be a petition drive to collect at least one million signatures in bookstores and libraries throughout the country. A pad of 50 petitions is enclosed with this letter. We want to start gathering signatures immediately. Our goal is to have a large number in hand by the spring when we will present them (hopefully, with booksellers present) to members of Congress in their home district at events that we hope will be well covered by the local press. We are also planning to hold a national press event at which petitions from around the country will be delivered to Washington.

It is easy to participate in the petition campaign. Once you have gathered a significant number of signatures, simply forward them to me at the American Booksellers Association where we will collate them in preparation for delivery to Congress. Be sure your store's name- where the signatures were collected -is filled-in - on the bottom of the petition.

Please think seriously about joining our campaign. Generating a few hundred signatures from your store might not seem very useful. But remember what a handful of booksellers in Vermont have already achieved - and, the remarkable impact our petitions had some years ago in the Ingram/B&N matter. With your help, we can win this fight!

Thank your for your support of this important efforts to restore the First Amendment rights of your customers and to defend the privacy of bookstores.

Sincerely,
Oren J. Teicher
Chief Operating Officer
American Booksellers Association

P.S. The petition incorporates the FREADOM logo developed last year by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE). Please consider using some of the FREADOM products that ABFFE has developed as part of your petition gathering effort. In addition to giving your customers another way or expressing their support, the proceeds will support ABFFE, which has been at the forefront of the effort to amend the Patriot Act. An order form is attached. You can also order online through the ABFFE Web site, https://www.abffe.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv.