An open letter to the ACLU
To Whom It May Concern:
This evening I was pleased to discover that the ACLU is actively reaching out to my generation by organizing the 2003 College Freedom Tour. I recently graduate from a small university in the Midwest and spent my college career fighting an administration intent on limiting the reproductive rights of women and failing to stand up and lead the way in protecting the rights of GLBT students and faculty. Like so many campuses across the country, Campus Crusade for Christ was one of our largest campus organizations followed by Republican and other neo-conservative groups. As you know from your good work, the academic climate in America is stifling and that is why now more than ever students need to hear what the ACLU has to say.
Yet I am dismayed to see that your Freedom Tour is traveling only to campuses already sympathetic to your cause. Your only stop in the Midwest is at the progressive University of Wisconsin in Madison. Who will you reach there that has not already heard your message? As it is currently arranged this tour will meet with successful turnout and cheers. You will fill rooms with students excited about your cause and the powerful brand that the ACLU brings with it. When you finish the tour there will still be hundreds of campuses across the country where small groups of students are fighting the same battle that you are. I hope that you can either find a way to stop at some smaller schools or put as much effort in reaching out to them. Perhaps the tour should stop at some schools in the South or the Midwest where success will not be so sure but the potential payoff will be great.
Now is the time for the ACLU to lead the charge and stimulate debate on every campus in America. Religious fundamentalists, traditional conservatives, gay right advocates, and civil libertarians all share in the benefits of the liberties that the ACLU fights to protect. It gives a good feeling to preach to the choir, but it can change America for the better to risk failure to reach out to those on the fence and those who have not connected the dots. If cost is the reason for your choice, I propose recording and photographing all of the events around the country and making them available online and as a DVD so students anywhere can benefit from this material. An online community with discussion boards, a blog, and activism tools would be a great way for students at the University of Wisconsin or Harvard who saw the tour to connect with students in Alabama, Illinois, or South Dakota dealing with different pieces of these same issues.
Please do not allow this tour to end at the prestigious liberal campuses you are planning to visit. America needs more than that. My generation needs more than that. Do not leave those of us out who were not able to go to Ivy League schools. We have just as important a role to play in the future of this country and the freedoms on which it rests.
-Sam Felder
Class of 2003 Bradley University, Peoria, IL
2 Comments
Leave a comment
Who is this guy?
Dear ACLU-
What he said.
and here's my frustration from today. like a good little tentative Dean supporter, i went to our local org's blood drive. and to my surprise (maybe this isn't a surprise to anyone else) despite my conscious use of latex and routine AIDS testing, i am unable to give blood because i have had sex with a man since 1977. not only is it a shifty policy (handed down from the FDA, i'm told), but it's another subtle way that people get the idea that queer men are dirty.
so i wasn't particularly in a good mood when i chatted with the volunteer coordinator, who pulled out a canned comment about how we need to make phone calls, and (though i went in intending to volunteer) i felt manipulated into volunteering. i felt like a cog rather than a human being. do other people involved in political campaigns feel handled in this way? i'm curious.
and by the way, i've seen more Dean stickers (though the Dartmouth organic farm was compelled to remove their signs from their yard since it's college property) lately. John Kerry's 'hey volunteer for my campaign' poster still has all of its take-away tabs, and i haven't seen any other candidate signs/stickers around here.