Since coming to the States to live from the UK I have always felt the USA was something akin to a police state. This article typifies the attitudes of the administration to its permanent residents and citizens.

I was awarded a green card in the international lottery and thought myself very lucky. One is, however, treated like some kind of hostile alien when one has a green card, in fact the card itself had 'ALIEN' emblazoned across the top.

It was easier to enter the USA on vacation with no permanent green card status. This was in 1998 pre the 9/11 tragedy.

From the moment I stepped off the plane an immigration official searched me out as we walked down the gangway as he had been informed I was flying on a one way ticket. And yet it was the USA who had randomly picked my green card application and invited me to become a resident.

Everything else is obvious: over zealous police force. Aggressive behaviour by trigger happy cops. An atmosphere of fear and suspicion pervades in this country, its citizens almost subliminally discouraged from going abroad and 90% of the news is local. The only international news one receives in the USA is pertaining to the USA. Take a look at the CNN site.

Americans are almost bamboozled from an early age to believe that the USA is the greatest nation on earth.

Says who?

This article typifies the way that innocent residents and citizens are treated and, sadly, they know nothing to compare it with because the country is so insular.

And before some smarty pants contributor to this forum bleats: "Well go back to the UK then" No I won't! I'd rather stay here and complain about it. Now I am a USA citizen just like you . . .

It's not entirely clear to me WHAT happened. There's a lot of material on the emotional reactions by the author and the other adults involved, but I *think* that what happened was: some government staffers confiscated some photos, communicated "we are investigating", failed to make a phone call on Thanksgiving, conducted some interviews, and closed the case.

Nobody was charged, nobody was threatened. Big Brother's crime seems to have been silence. Isn't this how the system is supposed to work?

Can someone propose another system that would protect children, and NOT work pretty much like this?

While I certainly sympathize with the author, and concur that the system is broken, this case seems like a textbook example of how the system claims it works. Certainly it does not always work like this, but this IS how it's supposed to work.

Some of us are writing about what we would or would not do regarding pictures, nudity, camping, peeing, and several other life-style choices. The real issue related to this story is if there should be any legal consequences for some of the things that we wouldn't do as compared with these things we wouldn't do falling into the live and let live category?

Quite a few of us are writing about right-wingers in relation to the events described in this story. Actually, this kind of issue is a tricky one in terms of political orientation. You might be surprised to find out that it is often left-wingers who express more of a desire to intervene related to sex-related actions when they consider there to be a bad act comitted against someone's will. Also, it is sometimes left-wingers who are more willing to intervene in the family system. It is sometimes right-wingers who express negativity about agencies with a mandate to protect children. There is some interesting research related to the interesting patterns that happen politically when it comes to sexual stuff.

What about naturists or those who are clothes free (often called nudists)? Are they always in a state of vulnerability to arrest, if children are involved?

You know you may be right about somethings, but,

1) I didn't intend to talk down to anyone, or "berate" anyone, and I'm sorry if that is what you read in my posts.

2) You're the one who brought "sanity" into the conversation. Ordinarily, I wouldn't use that word in this context; I did so for stylistic reasons and that may have been an error.

3) Of course everyone should do what they can to improve their situation and our government. I expec6t that most Salon readers try to do something to help. And if writing about these events makes the columnist feel better, great. But before anyone publishes here, they should be willing to deal with a spirited debate from the readers. Debate is also a good thing. I simply made a suggestion of a way that this poor man can avoid being overwhelmed by such events in the future-- a fair contribution to the discussion, as I understand it.

4) Everyone has troubles, you know, many of which are far worse than what has been described here. And there are many paths to finding peace with the facts of life in an imperfect society. Most begin with taking responsibility for your actions and the ways you express your feelings, and not with blaming all of your problems on "them".

5) Yes, the system needs improvement and no, throwing money at it is not the only answer, but, I do think that the social services where I live are dreadfully underfunded, and that Bush's 'faith-based initiatives' aren't really helping much. Paying people more could be defended pretty easily, I think, although passing such a law would be difficult. Sometimes, however, you do get what you pay for.

6) And as for me and my friends, we have all faced difficult situations, some that we didn't deserve, and we expect to face more of them. We all have also gotten away with some stuff that we could have been arrested for, as I expect most writers here have. If it doesn't kill you, best to let it go and and go on living life as well as you can, learning from your mistakes along the way. I prefer to believe that people are basically good and that things generally work out okay, in one way or another. You can choose to be a pessimist if you wish. I don't care; as I said, you may be right.

And that's all I'll say. Thank you for engaging me in this interesting discussion.

(Oh, except that in addition to a few other typos, which I regret, I left many letters out of this word earlier: catastrophizing. Is that a real word? I know I've heard it before.)