| Part 1 | Part 2 | Next | Part 5 | Part 6 |
| Table of Contents |

Thinking about the close-call and Jennifer's comment, I forgot what I had been saying to Jennifer before hitting the brakes. Gradually, I remembered my place in the discussion.

"My parents had nothing to do with my decision to come to Canada. They did not help me to leave the United States, nor did they offer me any financial assistance while I was in Canada.

"My parents were not in favor of my evading the draft, but they didn't hate me for doing it either. There was some psychological and philosophical distance between us for a time. Eventually, however, we worked our way through the differences."

I started to slow down for another red light, but the light changed before I had to come to a full stop. I accelerated back up to a moderate cruising speed.

"The FBI bothered my parents for a number of years. Presumably, they were hoping either my Mom's and Dad's patriotism would overcome their parental affection for me or that my parents, inadvertently, would divulge some piece of information that might assist the authorities to arrest me.

"In effect, the FBI knowingly kept a deathbed watch over my father to see if their prey would step into the trap which they had set, with my father and mother as bait. In addition, like vultures, they hovered over my father's grave to peck at the grief that lingered there."

I slowed down and turned right at the intersection. I began looking for a parking spot.

While looking for a legally viable space, I finished trying to answer Jennifer's question. "I accept the fact that people like the FBI have a job to do. I'm even prepared to accept that their job can be, on occasion, a very difficult way to earn a living.

"What I don't accept is the frequency with which they seem to end up punishing, harassing and/or persecuting innocent people while they go about fulfilling their duties. Furthermore, they sometimes tend to go about their duties with a great deal of self-righteousness, arrogance and insensitivity."

Reflecting, for a short period of time, on what I had said, I shrugged my shoulders. "I suppose my real bone of contention with the FBI is its whole mind-set. How they treated my parents is but one manifestation of their psychological orientation.

"On far too many occasions, the mind-set of the FBI lends itself to all sorts of dubious enterprises. For example, the FBI was at the beck and call of the forces of McCarthyism. The lives of a lot of innocent people were ruined as a result of the activities of the FBI during that period."

"This organization also, frequently, has been in the service of big business while the latter attempted to limit the effectiveness and influence of unions. Long before organized crime ever showed up on the scene, the FBI was busy doing its best to undermine and contain union activity.

"Many people in the FBI viewed unions as just one more of the hydra-like heads through which the Red menace was believed to be manifesting itself. Concepts like poverty, hunger, exploitation, unsafe working conditions and abuse of human rights seemed to be beyond their ability to comprehend as legitimate reasons for trying to organize labor."

The engine of a parked car, up ahead on the right, was running. I slowed down, hoping the driver was about to vacate the space.

My hopes were dashed when the exhaust fumes disappeared and the driver got out of the car. I continued my search for a parking space.

"In any event, the FBI repeatedly has allowed itself to be used as an instrument of terror and oppression in relation to, for instance, Native peoples. In addition, the FBI was quite rabid in its pursuit of anyone who opposed the U. S.'s attempts to keep a corrupt, oppressive government in power in South Vietnam.

"On more than one occasion, the FBI has compiled an enemies list based not on criminal activity, but on the personal whims and prejudices of its so-called leaders. Moreover, this organization has a very disturbing tendency to bend, if not break, the law in order to satisfy whatever the current agenda demands - an agenda, I might add, that is not always in the service of either the law or the people of the United States."

I was on my second trip around the block, and no parking spaces were in sight. I decided to try my luck with a street coming up on the left.

Just after making the turn, I spied the rarest of treasures: a parking space on the street. I quickly pulled into the empty spot and, then, switched the engine off.

| Part 1 | Part 2 | Next | Part 5 | Part 6 |
| Table of Contents |