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The AGLU is a Positive Force
Vicki Scott
I’m one of the believers that the ACLU (American Civil
Liberties Union) is needed now more than ever. I’m so
glad they are around for the rights of individuals in the
United States, whether they are immigrants or U.S. born.
Some might argue that our tax dollars used to oppose
the ACLU are being spent on petty or inconsequential
subject matters. Some disagree with the ACLU even be
ing here and shudder when they hear anything to do with
it. This really seems to come about when the cases
have to do with religion. That’s just an observation on
my part. All of these things don’t dissuade me, though,
from feeling that the ACLU is a positive force in the
United States. If for no other reason than to bring aware
ness out that we all have rights, and we are all individu
als. We are not all the same when it comes to just about
anything, nor should we be, and nor should we think that
others should think and believe what we do.
As far as the tax dollars that are being spent, I think it’s
worth it. There are many other, more valid, reasons to
worry about how our tax dollars are being spent. Here
are a few examples I found from the year 2000; Boll
Weevil Eradication Program ($16.2 million). Rural Elec
trification ($1.5 billion), and Peanut Program ($500 mil
lion/year) to name a few. There is this cool website that
tells what our tax dollars are being used for or have
been used for. Check it out: www.progress.org/tcs21.
htm.
The following are but a few reasons why I believe the
ACLU is helpful: criminal justice, disability rights, free
speech, immigrants rights, national security, privacy, ra
cial equality, religious liberty, students rights, women’s
rights, and many more. The ACLU is also working to
stop censorship at some levels. A good example of this
is with books, such as the Harry Potter series. Parents
are capable of overseeing their children’s reading. The
public, though, shouldn’t have a parent (censor) telling
them what they should not read. We are adults and indi
viduals who can make up our own minds. Thank you
very much. For more information on the ACLU you can
go to their website at www.aclu.org.
For the Sake of Our Children
The Anonymous Professor
Lately, thank the good Lord, we as a society have been
paying more attention to the media to which our children
are exposed. We have expanded Hollywood's film rat
ings to include PG-13 to more exactly warn parents; we
have added small descriptions of the refuse rated R:
"due to violence, language, nudity and sexual content";
we've added similar ratings to television shows, using
the MA rating to effectively warn everyone away from
Southpark, obviously the worst show on TV, and from
Dennis Franz's buttocks on NYPD Blue\ we've posted
ratings or warnings on music CDs and video games.
Despite those ignorant souls who argue that these rat
ings merely make it easier for our children to shift
through the bombardment of media offers and find these
horrible shows, CDs and video games ~ as if our chil
dren would possibly desire to see a movie with an R rat
ing, or Southpark, heaven forbid - we know these rat
ings work, especially with new technologies like the V-
chip giving us creative control over the world. But did
you notice that in this ratings shuffle we've missed the
books?
That's right. Except for local libraries like the Wilkes
County Library where Christian Literature is clearly
placed in its own section to make it easy for us to find
quality writing - and, let me point out, no obtuse ancient
writings such as Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost,
or St. Augustine's Confessions or the liberal new authors
such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or C. S. Lewis finds
its way into this protected section - we have no clear
ratings of our written media products to help us, as a
conscientious society, protect our children from mislead
ing books. Do let me say that I strongly support our pub
lic libraries in their endeavors to protect our children
from the rubbish that gets published every year. It
makes my heart warm to consider what a step the Con
cord, Mass. Public Library took 110 years ago when it
banned that backwards and incompetent text The Ad
ventures of Huckleberry Finn (I still can't stomach Mark
Twain making an admittedly immoral river rat the hero of
a children's novel), and it makes me proud to think that
our own public library is following in those footsteps of
long tradition. But the libraries alone can't defeat the evil
that is daily put before our children in the form of books.
Since we can't solely depend on the libraries, and since
the majority of bookstores do not have Walmart's clear
moral character and will not refuse to carry offense ma
terial, we must act. We must strive to root out evil books
and destroy them. Our children are at stake.
Thank goodness, some of us are already acting to save
the little ones. In New Mexico, for instance, a group of
respectable Christian adults took it upon themselves to
bring attention to the harm caused by a new series of
books: the Harry Potter series. To show how strongly
they oppose the evil inherent in these books, these so
cially conscious citizens exercised their Constitutional
rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech and burned
Harry Potter for the good of our children. Did the liberal