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News :: Civil & Human Rights |
ACLU Summit Registration Deadline Extended; Witchburning Optional |
Current rating: 0 |
by gehrig (No verified email address) |
07 Apr 2005
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Registration for Saturday's statewide ACLU conference in CU has been extended to 9 AM tomorrow. Registration is free for students! Learn how to fight the Winnebago Inquisition the way it matters most. |
The deadline for registration for the ACLU of Illinois 2005 Summit, this Saturday, has been extended to 9 AM Friday.
Hawthorn Suites and
Conference Center
101 Trade Centre Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
This is the building connected by a skyway to the one with the TGIFriday’s near the corner of Neil and Kirby.
The conference is free to current ACLU members and students. A fee of $25 applies to non-members, who will automatically become ACLU members. (That’s what I did.)
The program includes a morning plenary session, “An Historic Threat to Basic Constitutional Values – Fighting to Protect Our Rights at the National, State and Local Level”; small group discussions; an afternoon plenary session, “Becoming a More Effective Card Carrying Member of the ACLU of Illinois”; and a special session for strategizing against the renewal of the Patriot Act. A continental breakfast (starting at 8:30) and lunch are included. The full schedule is available here: http://aclu-il.org/conference/
Breakout session topics include: Reproductive Freedom; Protections for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons; Racial and Ethnic Bias by Government; Religious Liberty; National Security; and Treatment and Rights for Vulnerable Populations, including the mentally ill and the incarcerated.
I’ll be there, and so -- apparently -- will be a flock of whooping loons in Winnebagos, so be sure to bring along an extra heretic or two for their witchburning.
@%< |
Related stories on this site: Statewide ACLU meeting in CU to draw fundamentalist counterprotest
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This work is in the public domain |
Re: ACLU Summit Registration Deadline Extended; Witchburning Optional |
by rporter rporter (nospam) newtonbigelow.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0 09 Apr 2005
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I understand the whooping loons (all seven of them) went home at about 9:00 am. Had they stuck around, they might have been able to pick some pointers on how to run a successful demonstration from some of the attendees.
At the very least, they probably could have snagged a free sandwich. |
Re: ACLU Summit Registration Deadline Extended; Witchburning Optional |
by gehrig (No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0 10 Apr 2005
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I didn't get a chance to see them until about 12:30 PM, at which time it was down to one lone guy with a sign sitting in a folding chair. And I heard a few people inside the meeting say that the protesters actually made it easier to find the meeting. Hey, thanks, guys.
In the meantime, among other things, it turns out that statewide ACLU membership has nearly doubled since 2001, and that national membership is on a similar major upswing.
@%< |
Re: ACLU Summit Registration Deadline Extended; Witchburning Optional |
by gehrig (No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0 11 Apr 2005
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Can't resist one more comment. For a truly classic example of how to describe a protest as a success by simply redefining "success":
http://www.stoptheaclu.org/wst_page9.html
@%< |
The Courage to Pick Up ACLU Literature |
by Dose of Reality (No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0 11 Apr 2005
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It's rather much of an admission of the sorry state of civil rights in this country, and the continuing need for the ACLU, to hear the anti-ACLU people speak of their being "courageous" to pick up ACLU literature.
After all, with Gonzales now Attorney General, one could get mistaken as a liberal by doing that and, what is worse, be packed off to Guantanamo if your heritage or religion was suspected of being the wrong ethnicity. I suppose they could whip out their bibles to prove they're on the right side of things if that happened though, so they really shouldn't be so fearful about picking up a leaflet.
Or maybe they know something we don't? The clampdown could be just around the corner. |