Back in the late 90s, my crafting friends and I all bought T-shirts that said “Ladies’ Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society.” We wore them to our first and only bingo night and anywhere we might be able to make a spectacle of ourselves. Nowadays, we have to be more careful. (Helpful Tip: Airports are a no-no.)

Recently I decided to wear my tee to the ArtScape Festival in Baltimore, knowing there would be a diverse crowd. Indeed, I saw an array of other mildly shocking shirts there, including a kilted fellow’s that read “I leave rope burns” and another picturing a chicken and egg in bed above the phrase “Who came first?” Needless to say, I suspected mine would go unnoticed.

I was pleasantly surprised when a couple of indie craft vendors grinned wide my way and commented that they liked my T-shirt. Later, though, I was standing on the sidewalk after having taken in the Mike Doughty concert, and a woman caught me off-guard by pointing toward me and laughing. At first I wondered if my fly was down or I had something stuck in my teeth, but then it occurred to me it was the shirt. She came up to ask where I’d gotten it and proceeded to tell me that it was actually quite timely.

“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Haven’t you heard about the police infiltration?” she replied. “It just came out that the Maryland police have been investigating a bunch of activist groups for years–anti-war protesters and death penalty folks…”
“Wow, that’s a little scary,” I said–stating the obvious. “Coincidentally, I’m involved with both types of groups back in Virginia … .”

We laughed about it, but there was an underlying nervousness in the conversation. When I returned home I did a little Internet search to confirm her story. Sure enough, 47 pages of surveillance records were released to the ACLU–the results of 288 hours of police investigation.

After additional pressure from the ACLU and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the now-governor of Maryland confirmed that the state police are no longer watching the groups and haven’t been since 2006. But we can be sure it won’t be the last time something like this comes out. It took four years for Buffalo art professor Steven Kurtz to be cleared of terrorism charges, and until our new president reinstates habeas corpus (*fingers crossed*), we citizens don’t have much of a leg to stand on.

Between the number of people on the federal government’s terrorist watch list now topping more than 1 million, and my involvement with MoveOn.org and the Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, it’s possible that I’m already being observed.

Out of curiosity, I also researched the mysterious origins of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society. BUST magazine traces it back to the 1974 Oregon Women’s Political Caucus where a few friends came up with the idea and started selling the shirts via women’s conferences and a classified ad in Ms. magazine.

A literary scholar pointed out that the idea goes back even further, to a 1952 sci-fi short story by Katherine MacLean. From what I gather, “The Snowball Effect” was about a university professor who tests a dynamic social growth theory on the Watashaw Ladies Sewing Circle, and his success ends up starting a revolution.

What I want to know: Which science fiction authors are predicting the future now?

Taryn Chase is not really a terrorist but she does enjoy the occasional revolution.