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I also believe the ACLU diverts more of its resources to defending the rights of criminals, whereas it should be defending the rights of the victims.

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Khayman,

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I also believe the ACLU diverts more of its resources to defending the rights of criminals, whereas it should be defending the rights of the victims.

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Now, I might be wrong, but isn't that the job of the legal system (police, courts, ...)?
The legal system protects the law-abiding citizens (to the extent that such a creature exists; I know I've never met one )

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Wolfman, you're saying that to you, the Boy Scouts' freedom to discriminate homosexuals is more important than the homosexuals' freedom from discrimination? If so, it kinda strikes me as odd...

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I'm from your neck of the woods. You know I'm a Texan living in Oregon. I was in the Boyscouts. I made it all the way to Life-rank. I needed 2-3 more merit badges and I already had picked out a reasonable service project. That's where it ended for me. But I never forgot the things I learned during my time at the camps and out performing community service. I think I learned a great deal about people in the way a lad should in my opinion. I also know my state pretty darn well. You and I both know that Texans and Okies have many similar common courtesies and usual customs. Their both largely christian strongholds and in turn both "red" states. One of my best friends while growing up was an Okie.

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But you need to understand that America is not officially christian. It is 76% christian. Our laws allow for other such religions as well.

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I think we need organizations like the ACLU because I've seen and been a part of some highly questionable religions that actually have the national anthem as one of their sermon songs they sing during sunday service.

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That's what you should keep in mind as a voter. It's not which organization is perfect, but rather, which organization holds the most promise in your mind.

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ACLU Statement on Defending Free Speech of Unpopular Organizations
 
August 31, 2000




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


NEW YORK--In the United States Supreme Court over the past few years, the American Civil Liberties Union has taken the side of a fundamentalist Christian church, a Santerian church, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In celebrated cases, the ACLU has stood up for everyone from Oliver North to the National Socialist Party. In spite of all that, the ACLU has never advocated Christianity, ritual animal sacrifice, trading arms for hostages or genocide. In representing NAMBLA today, our Massachusetts affiliate does not advocate sexual relationships between adults and children.

What the ACLU does advocate is robust freedom of speech for everyone. The lawsuit involved here, were it to succeed, would strike at the heart of freedom of speech. The case is based on a shocking murder. But the lawsuit says the crime is the responsibility not of those who committed the murder, but of someone who posted vile material on the Internet. The principle is as simple as it is central to true freedom of speech: those who do wrong are responsible for what they do; those who speak about it are not.

It is easy to defend freedom of speech when the message is something many people find at least reasonable. But the defense of freedom of speech is most critical when the message is one most people find repulsive. That was true when the Nazis marched in Skokie. It remains true today.

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President Clinton single-handedly stopped the deployment of a national missile defense system, exposing every American life to a missile attack, leaving America with no defense whatsoever against an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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Second, and this is to you Wolfman. The ABM treaty of 1972 expressly forbade the development technology to stop ICBMs. Both Russia and the U.S. were beholden to it. Please forgive Clinton for actually honoring a treaty.

And tell me, what is the point of a missile defense system that can stop x amount of missiles when the enemy has twice that number at their disposal?

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I don't remember saying anything about that.

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A True "First Voice" of America

Mary Ann Bear Heels McCowan is a meditative, spiritual woman whose Native American name means Her Good Nation Woman. She is a full-blood Lakota born to the Great Sioux Nation on the Rosebud Reservation in southern South Dakota. Don't ask her age however; she'll simply describe herself as an adult Sicangu Lakota woman.

But she is so much more than that. As co-founder of First Voices, a Native American group that lobbies the state legislature on Native American issues, she is an organizer who helps Native People gain access to their government representatives. As Secretary of the United Sioux Tribe Development Corporation, a group that supports Native Americans with job placement and affordable housing, Mary Ann offers hope and support to young Native People seeking a life off of South Dakota's reservations.

To hear her recount her activities in the early days of the American Indian Movement (AIM) one gets the sense that this is a woman who has seen and experienced much hardship but whose enthusiasm and spirit are buoyed by the positive steps she and others have taken to politically empower Native People in South Dakota and improve race relations with whites.

As a board member of the ACLU's chapter office in the Dakotas, Mary Ann feels that she can help bring about positive changes for her people by being affiliated with a national organization that seeks to protect the rights of everyone.

"We've got a great partnership here in the Dakotas," said Mary Ann. "Because of the decades of hardship and racism my people have experienced, many Native People have been suspicious of those who come offering help, but the ACLU has respected our traditions and assisted us, through the legislature and the court system, in retaining our honor."

Mary Ann will be fulfilling a lifelong dream when she travels to Washington, D.C. on June 11th to attend the ACLU's Inaugural Membership Conference as part of a 40-person delegation that includes representatives from many of South Dakota's tribes. "I have always dreamed of traveling to the nation's capitol as a delegate of my proud people."

For Mary Ann, social activism was something that chose her at an early age. In 1973 she attended a gathering of members of AIM in South Dakota and her life was transformed. She and others pledged to themselves and to their ancestors to work to correct the injustices suffered by Native People wherever they lived so that all persons, regardless of their race, can preserve dignity.

Progress toward correcting some of these injustices seemed hopeful in the late 1980s when Governor George Mickelson proposed a reconciliation agenda with Native American leaders. That burgeoning rapport was shelved however, when Governor Mickelson was tragically killed in an airplane crash and Congressman William Janklow became governor.

Mary Ann expresses optimism about first-term Governor Mike Rounds' pledge to reach out to both tribal governments and individual Native American people. "There is still a lot of work to be done and race relations are still very tense but there is new hope springing forth," she noted.

For Mary Ann, this hope takes many forms: a bill recently passed by the legislature to license a nursing home on at least one reservation; a successful youth voting program that educates and prepares young Native American to become involved in the electoral process; and improvements in sensitivity training for law enforcement officers. Hope is also embodied in the election last year of a Native American Sheriff in the town of Martin.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I