"And I bring it up and write about it because everyone seems to think that the Patriot Act is some far off - "doesn't really affect me" kind of thing."

I've never thought that, and I've never met anyone who talked about it like that. It's always been very clear that they are taking our rights from us in order to 'protect' us, whether we like it or not. I've never found anyone who said otherwise... Or even tried to justify it.