But remember, it's only a game.

The Patriot Act Game, to be exact.

One of its creators, Chatham College art professor Steffi Domike, called it "the most politically correct gift of the holiday season," but she'd like to see the new board game sell all year round -- or at least, she hopes, until the Patriot Act is repealed.

For sale online and at several local bookstores, novelty shops and the Pittsburgh Food Coop, the game, which retails for $25, is aimed squarely at promoting opposition to the law, while, according to a press release, making "learning about a complicated series of laws and their widespread implications fun. That is, if the players can stay out of jail."

Domike created the game with Lisa Freeland, a lawyer, after they concluded that few people understood the full impact of the USA Patriot Act and other post-9/11 laws that were designed to step up anti-terrorism efforts.

Instead, the 342-page law is "a major blow to civil liberties," said Domike, a liberal political activist, filmmaker and a former director of the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee. "But it's hard for people to perceive that, given the complexity of the law. Even for a lawyer, it's not something you can read through quickly."

The brightly colored game is a takeoff on Monopoly -- but instead of "No Visitors Allowed" on the Jail square, it's "No Lawyers or Visitors Allowed." Instead of play money, there are "freedom fries." Players who have game tokens that are colored red, white and blue are at a greater advantage than those with tokens colored black, brown or yellow. "Community Chest" and "Chance" cards have been replaced by cards named "Justice," "Surveillance," "Protest" and "History."

The object of the game? Get every player to Freedom Corner before the homeland security threat level reaches "severe" and the player holding the "snitch" card turns everyone in to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Domike is displaying the game as part of an art exhibition at Chatham College and plans some "play-ins" of the game this week. She described it as a political and "tactical" piece of art.

"As a tactical artist, I choose my media -- the way I communicate my art -- according to the tactics that are appropriate. My tactic was to make a game so that people could understand what I was trying to express."

She hopes the game "will get people to start talking and thinking about these issues, while also teaching them about the history of protest and political dissent in this country." The four stacks of playing cards -- "Justice," "Surveillance," "Pro-test" and "History" -- contain factoids about famous dissenters, from Desmond Tutu to Mother Jones. For instance, she said, under today's Patriot Act, Benjamin Franklin would be labeled a terrorist. "He published some papers calling for revolution, and the British almost arrested him."

"The act is so freaking scary to some people that their minds just freeze up and they walk away. We wanted to use the game to break through that fear. It's so hard to think about government taking away our civil liberties, our right to privacy, our speech."

But Elizabeth Male, a Duquesne University law student and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization, had a different view. After perusing the game on its Web site, she said she found it to be "not particularly fair and balanced."

Under the stack of "Justice" cards, she noted, there's information stating that most arrested under the Patriot Act's provisions have been Muslim men "including some U.S.-born citizens, resident aliens, naturalized citizens as well as some without proper immigration status."

"The reality is, we didn't have blond-haired, blue-eyed Swedes flying planes into buildings on Sept. 11th," said Male. "As much as we would like to not racially profile people, the facts are what they are. And I don't have any problem with people without proper immigration status being arrested.

"This whole game is suggesting that there's something wrong with the Patriot Act. I would beg to differ. It's in response to a whole new set of realities after Sept. 11th, and it's designed to promote the security of the American people, first and foremost. We shouldn't forget that."

Nonetheless, the game has been selling well, store owners report. "They went like hot cakes over Christmas," said Michael Ferraro, owner of The Pleasant Present, a gift shop in Squirrel Hill. The East End Food Coop's supply is sold out, but more are on order, said Germaine Patterson, gift buyer for the Coop.

Nick Romaniello, a customer service representative at the store, said he bought one for his aunt. "She loved it. She's really upset about the act. It's a way to laugh at something that's kind of scary."




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Mackenzie Carpenter can be reached at mcarpenter (at) post-gazette.com or 412-263-1949.