---

Alma Haus Press is about seeking knowledge and then pondering upon what has been learned. When we feel passionate about a subject we will research it more, or just let our passion out on the page, sometimes in prose and sometimes in poetry. We offer to present others' work here, with permission, but do not offer monetary compensation. Learn more about us on our mission page.

---

Documents! Documents!! Documents!!!

Bridget E. Smith, 12 November 2022 // Meme of A & Z ... retrieved from our 2011 email archives. Name it and claim it.

Right now Documents are a big deal in the news.... but it's not any of the usual suspects. One maligned by our government because of the secrets revealed to the press. Yes. Assange wanted to give you the behind the scenes look at how our government conducts business overseas. Not allowed for The People to know. As a journalist, I believe that the People deserve to know how their government conducts business, but maybe not the fine points. Outing our "spies" could get them killed, or we may lose even more secrets. And, the fine points are what's in the Top Secret documents.

Julian Assange has spent nearly a decade confined in a garrison, much of it in an embassy which gave him asylum. Yep, that word everyone has on their lips when they speak of coming to America. Asylum. Not here, but from US. No, while everyone out here is living life, Julian has been held for a decade for being so bold as to pass around Documents (some times secret, not top secret, documents) to press organizations who made stories from the raw data. Then, Edward Snowden shared classified documents with others. It doesn't really matter by this time who's getting the information. What mattered is that our secret data was being given to the public. That shouldn't be as bad as someone sharing our classified documents with other governments without our government knowing who's receiving the documents. Especially criminal would be the selling of such documents. Out in the open data dumping isn't the same as selling it under the table to another government.

Julian Assange

Mark Zuckerberg

---

Now the other way I think of documents is how it relates to me and mine. What happens to my documents, my private matters if I use social media, Facebook. You know, the place where the family posts the wedding photos and baby photos. The place where your neighbors post pictures of stolen cars. Of course, for Friends only. You know, here's the place where you thought it would be safe to store your family photos so you could share them. Or you could talk private like with your friends. Oh, but you didn't do that because you knew that Zuckerberg's mission is to use your data to sell you stuff? And, use your data to make money by selling your info to the highest bidder... Smart cookie. Oh, cookies. That's another topic altogether.

Well, those bits and pieces of your life are documents, my friends. Documents in the modern world are often just electrons. Visible only on the screen, and often, only when connected. That's not as secure as paper and once the data gets out, there's no predicting how many times it can or will be duplicated. Then, not pictured here, but valid concern... there's your medical records. Who gets to see them. And that leads me to the next part of this question.

THE NEED TO KNOW

In Document Security, the first thing considered is "Who has a need to know?" If you don't really need to know, you're out of the loop. Our national security information is not a free for all gossip fest.

"Loose lips sink ships" and all that. It's real. It's part of the protocol of the government. That leads us down the rabbit hole of how our past president got into the mess he's in. His background gave him no knowledge of how that procedure works. Although he doesn't realize it yet, he's in a big mess. He never learned the big process for getting something declassified. Just thinking about it doesn't get it. In reality, Lots of departments sometimes and maybe several people within a department, will have to sign off on Top Secret documents.

There are several levels of secret documents. /// Confidential /// Secret /// Top Secret ///

Lock and key arrangements were reviewed periodically as not everyone in a command had access to even the Confidential documents. Because, if you didn't have a Need to Know, you wouldn't have access since those might give away names and ranks of people who were being assigned to areas that might become classified. So, when people say Classified Documents, the military people who have worked in these areas begin to wonder. How high of a level are these missing documents? What sort of secrets might they contain? Do we need to change the locks? Codes? What is his Need To Know basis? Doesn't have a logical reason? Well, no Classified Documents for you, buddy.

People who never worked in higher headquarters in the military / government wouldn't totally understand why military/government people are so concerned about what these documents are that our former president has left his public office with. Those should have remained in the library. He's out of order to do such a thing. Those documents belong to the people's servants. Not to someone who's shown himself to be grifting the public so he can have the power that makes him feel alive. Without power, he seems to fly into a rage. He's only tuned in when he's got the admiration of people coming at him from below. That is a serious problem for the American public because he has managed to split asunder our country during a crucial time that begs us to join together and beat our climate challenges. Our Earth Needs US Now.

My prayers: That we can somehow find the common ground that will help us to work together, like our society did during World War II to create the pathways for victory. Our future requires that we correct our direction and fix our pollution. Remove the plastic and the radiation from our oceans. Change our fossil fuel dependence to hyrdogen. Right now, we have two different possibles of hydrogen power: paste or plastic. Climate Change. It's serious.Think of how our weather is changing. And, another tragedy... it's unfortunate but, we are being forced to waste our energies on social issues that won't matter if our planet fails us. Daily I lament on the amount of time spent... by humans fighting one another when their interests are so much the same. Good food and water... nice shelter, pretty clothing... interesting things to do. If we're always fighting we can't lift everyone up to enjoy the short life we're given. Follow The Golden Rule. You will feel better for it.

My final words: Greed must not win.