PHO TO BY A R K A D Y BRO W N
US. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is leading voice in Congress about government surveillance and Americans’ privacy. Wyden spoke with Street Roots on Feb. 25.
BY E M ILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
n Feb. 25, spectators packed into a
gymnasium at David Douglas High
School in East Multnomah County.
Despite a rare spate of sunshine gracing
the Portland area that day, an estimated
3,500 people had decided to spend their
Saturday afternoon indoors listening to a
politician answer questions.
It was U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s 800th town
hall since he was elected to the Senate in
1996.
“How many have never been to a town
hall?” he asked the audience from the stage.
From the highest bleachers on the
balcony level to the rows of folding chairs
across the gymnasium floor, hands
everywhere popped upward.
“That says it all,” he said.
The election of Donald Trump has
elevated the already-popular senator to a
superstar-like status, with constituents
flocking to his town meetings, which in
years past were more sparsely attended.
At David Douglas High School, Wyden
fielded questions about everything from the
Affordable Care Act and corporate taxes to
impeaching Trump and efforts to destroy
labor unions.
After he left the town hall, which had
gone into double overtime, Wyden headed
to the Street Roots office in Old Town for an
interview.
We wanted to know his thoughts on
issues he’s fought long and hard for, such as
net neutrality and civilian privacy, now that
a business-minded administration that has
B
exhibited a willingness to conduct witch
hunts is occupying the White House.
The interview kicked off with a few
questions from Street Roots vendor Dennis
Chavez.
D ennis Chavez: Since the dawn of the
Patriot Act, it’s a constitutional issue where
people cannot feel free to voice their opinion
without repercussion, so I just want to know
how the government feels about that.
Ron Wyden: Well, I can tell you I’ve
been voting against the various extensions
of the Patriot Act for a long time.
D.C.: I know you have.
R.W.: I think what’s particularly
unfortunate is people want security and
liberty, and they’re now getting policies that
Would give them less of both. And what
really illustrates that is weakening strong
encryption. Strong encryption is what keeps
your information safe, and Donald T rum p
and some of these senior Republicans want
to weaken it. What it’s going to do if you
weaken strong encryption is give a big gift
to terrorists and hackers; your data will be
much less protected - your personal
information, whether it’s health or financial
or whatever - and then our companies are
really going to get hurt because then they’d
be required to put backdoors into their
products, and then that helps their
competition overseas. So when you and I
and everybody else wants security and
liberty, a lot of these policies that are
coming out of Washington, D.C., give you
less of both, and that seems to me to be
foolish, even by Washington, D.C.,
;
standards.
D.C.: I agree totally.
R.W.: Good on you. You’ve been really
studying the Patriot Act and these privacy
issues and the like? What got you interested
in this?
D.C.: Well, I have a
bachelor’s degree in political
science.
R.W.: Where’d you get
your bachelor’s degree?
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D.C.: A t Washington State
University. And I have a
minor in anthropology, so I ’ve
kind of been studying how
human beings have been
manipulating human beings
since the dawn of human
beings - and I ’m not happy
about that. I ’m a military
veteran; I spent four years in
the Army as a Chinook helicopter mechanic.
But you know, I m just like, the country we
have now is not the country I swore to defend.
And I ’m unhappy about that. What can I do
about it?
R.W.: Well, what I tell people is that now
is really a crucial time. The reality is that
people from all over the world still want to
come here, and hardly anybody from here
wants to move there. But you’re absolutely
right, this is also a really ominous time.
When the Democratic National Committee
was hacked by the Russians, Donald Trump
See WYDEN, page 5
Ü.S. SERI, sow WYOEN