Note also the CCR’s statement about a significant victory they had in court, in which parts of the Patriot Act were struck down:
In a decision issued late Friday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins ruled that a ban on providing “expert advice and assistance” to terrorist groups violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution because it is so vague that it “could be construed to include unequivocally pure speech and advocacy protected by the First Amendment.” (Emphasis has not been added).
TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC:
~Organize town hall meetings at your local community college or church.
~Write letters to the editor, appealing to local papers and underground sources if you believe the mainstream won’t print your letter. You might be surprised: Key Patriot Act facts have been printed by some mainstream editors I have submitted the facts to. Give them a try before you give up.
~Dial in to radio talk shows.
~Circulate chain emails.
~Post to blogs everywhere.
~Hand out this link detailing our rights if we are stopped or queried by the police:
http://www.aclu.org/police/gen/14528res20040730.html.
Word will spread! Especially if you give specific permission for others to quote or reprint your articles, asking that they be distributed all over the web, word will get around!
3) Contact your grassroots leaders.
Ask them to make free speech their first point of focus. It only makes sense! If we don’t have free speech, we will not even be talking about saving the whales, global warming, healthcare or…Amy Goodman’s arrest.4) Meet with the police
Yup, you read that right. Do this in groups, of course: Never alone! But the fact is, that police are often as “in the dark” as our deliberately uninformed populace, thinking that anybody simply dubbed a “terrorist” is exactly as accused. This is usually not the case:
According to ACLU attorney Ben Wizner on the ACLU‘s Blog of Rights, more than 99% of the Guantanamo detainees have been proven innocent.
The ACLU’s clients, officially called “Terrorist” entities by the Bush Administration, include Greenpeace, Food Not Bombs, Amnesty International, United for Peace and Justice, UC Berkeley Students Against the Iraq War, and more. The point is: It is not terrorists who are being targeted. It is activists and religious groups, according to US Representative Lynn Woolsey D-CA‘s auto-reply to Patriot Act inquiries.
