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The ACLU apparently just loves the Volunteer State
Posted By katie allison granju
In a story tailor-made to rile up the state’s religious conservatives, the ACLU announces it has big expansion plans, for Tennessee (among a few other states) in particular:
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero says the campaign’s goal is $335 million, with $258 million already raised through behind-the-scenes solicitations over the past year.
Major donors include billionaire financier George Soros, who gave $12 million through his Open Society Institute.
Romero says the purpose is to build a civil liberties infrastructure in the middle of the country.
He cited issues such as immigrants’ rights, gay rights, police brutality and opposition to the death penalty as causes that would be pursued vigorously as the ACLU expands in heartland states.
At present, the ACLU’s biggest offices are in the Northeast, the Pacific states and Illinois. Targets for expansion include Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico and Tennessee, with even the smallest ACLU affiliates in line to get extra funding to hire new attorneys and launch new advocacy programs.
Jun 10th, 2008
I think it is great, especially here in Tennessee where ordinary citizens need all of the protection that they can get from individuals and organizations who are dead set on FORCING their outlook and values on people who do not subscribe to them. Frankly, I think it should be a jailable crime to knowingly and willingly violate another person’s constitutional rights—if we really value those rights—and I know of no other civil rights that are more valuable than these.
If I had my way, the principal of Lakeview Elementary School in Mount Juliet would be doing hard time in prison for running that Jewish child out of school with unconstitutional religious activities he should have known were illegal. This has got to stop somewhere, and criminal penalties are the only way to do it. The next time a science teacher in a Tennessee public school pulls out a copy of the “Panda’s Thumb” to engage his class—it ought to be worth 5 years in the slammer. Enough said.