I've enjoyed the debate between Diane Russell and my old (well, middle aged) friend Peter Kurilecz. Both made very valid comments in a civilized fashion befitting our profession. And now I'm going to step in. Peter's concerns about identity theft are certainly legitimate but the root cause is not the availability of information on deceased individuals but negligent lending by financial institutions. When I was a young man (and I really do expect you young archivists to be rolling your eyes), one did not get credit unless the creditor (corner grocer store, merchant, banker, or gas company) knew you or your references well enough to take the risk. Now, out-of-state banks offer cards so carelessly that even some small dogs qualify and are shocked-I-say-shocked-to-find-that crooks assume false identities. Rather than cleaning up their own act, the merchants of debt seek to socialize their problem by closing long-open records not caring about the consequences to others. The bottom line is that the bankers are assisting "the terrorists achieve their objective of destroying our culture and open society." Archivists and records managers, whether liberal or conservative, should unite to keep public information freely available. That is the hallmark of a free society. Paul R. Scott, CA, CRM Records Management Officer Harris County, TX A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>