Are you a card-carrying environmentalist?

Some people don't want to join environmental groups because of the fear of "getting on a government list." Such anxiety sounds paranoid but doesn't come out of the blue. Rather, it's got roots in the 20th century tradition of police red squads that snooped on civil rights activists such as MLK Jr., as well as your run-of-the-mill teachers and working class folk. Now that the FBI considers extremist environmentalists "the biggest terrorist threats in the United States," it's been spying on Greenpeace and other groups. So maybe the interest in PETA isn't so surprising, given the legendary fondness for pouring blood on fur coat-clad ladies. Anyway, the FBI's old-school surveillance tactics include planting agents provocateurs within organizations to rile up members to act more like those wackos who bomb SUVs in the name of "liberation." Details about the government's snooping on citizens are screaming from front pages lately, thanks to the ACLU's research and the NYT. I don't usually get into politics in these pages, because I'd rather stay off of the "government lists." Oopsie, too late!