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ACLU Reacts to Privacy Concerns
nettle writes "Back in September I began a series of commentaries about one person's experience signing up as a new member of the ACLU. I'd used their website to sign up, and was shocked to find my mailbox full of junk parcels, flyers, and personalized merchandise from dozens of nonprofit organizations like People for the American Way, Sierra Club, Americans for This, Americans for That, yadda yadda. I complained to the ACLU, having suspected that they had given out my contact info. So I wrote about the situation on my Nettle.com blog here and here and began a public correspondence with Anthony Romero, Exec Dir of ACLU, and Nadine Stossen, President of ACLU. Nadine promised they'd take action. I told her if they fixed the signup page on ACLU's website so that people could opt-out of ACLU's personal-info-sharing, I'd renew my membership. Well, Nadine kept her end of the bargain. Here's a screen capture of their new signup page. And my check to the ACLU goes out in today's mail! Blogs DO make a difference."
This is the same group that picks and chooses which parts of the Bill of Rights to fight for, and which to fight against (their pro-race-quota stance contradicts the Equal Protection clause)
In regards to the 1st Amendment, they often fight against free speech if the speech of the individual is "religious" and the person is a government employee (last time I checked, the Bill of Rights had no exemptions for government employees).
Anybody who believes that members of mainstream religions are "persecuted" in the US is seriously out of touch with reality and has no idea of what religious persecution actually is.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
It shouldn't be opt-out in the first place, the checkbox on the membership page should be unchecked by default. If I want marketing guff, I'll ask for it thanks.
They don't persecute mainstream relegions. They just do their best to stop the government from passing laws that further entangle church and state -- is this what you mean by persecute? Otherwise, you and I must have a different definition of persecution...because most of these laws ("Under God" in pledge, Ten Commandments in public buildings, etc) impinge on my right to have nothing to do with your mainstream religion. Did you forget about the Bill of Rights here, or are you simply unamerican?
As far as minimizing the majority -- sometimes protecting everybody's rights isn't the popular thing to do, but civil liberties in America aren't just for the popular. They're for everyone. (ie -- the populace may not like these terrorist suspects in Guantanamo bay, but it doesn't mean that they don't deserve standards of basic human rights [regardless of the conditions we pulled them from]).
Civil Liberties are a high priority for me. It sounds like your priorities are a theocracy where the weak, unpopular individuals get pushed around. From what I can infer based on your post, people like you are the problem.
ALL governments protect the majority, and especially the powerful. That's no big feat. Even the USSR did that.
The mark of a good government is how well they protect and respect the rights of everyone.
The religious right is always tromping on the rights of minority religions, and nonbelievers. They can't do that legally, and they persist in trying. The ACLU rightly stops them whenever they can.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
ACLU persecutes mainstream religion?!
At worst, they argue for separation of church and state, which is part of the Constitution's featureset, if you weren't aware. You want to run a religion, mainstream or not, well it's up to you to seek funding and favor from the people, not the government.
Funding of religion education from my tax dollars? Over my dead body.
"Minimize the majority to accomodate the minority."
Uh, propaganda anybody? Until recently, the minority was pretty much under the bootheel of the majority, and it still ain't grand being non-white / non-christian in the U.S.
If ACLU and other defenders of liberty relax on this, how quickly do you think the race back to the bottom will begin? It's already underway, as the thinly-veiled efforts of Bush and friends show us.
You've been listening too much to the tranked-up Mister Limbaugh. Do some reading. Get out into the world. Visit the favelas of Brasil, or take a job as a busboy or dishwasher, and find out just how difficult life is for the half that wasn't born "the majority."
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
Blogs DO make a difference.
Bad press has always prompted organizations to right their wrongs, especially guys like the ACLU whose entire reasons for existence are moral in nature. I think you would expect them to change their ways if you point out their hypocrisy in a public forum, regardless of whether it's in a blog, a newspaper, or a billboard. This is by no means a "win" for blogs, it's just common sense.
Just tired of people thinking "blogs" are something revolutionary. Nobody really cares.
rooooar
Hmm, that's a toughie... lessee... where wuz that battered scrap of paper? Oh, here it is! It's in, would you believe, The Bill of Rights... and it's the first "right," AKA the First Amendment, otherwise known as the Religion Clauses:
http://memory.loc.gov/const/bor.html
Google for: congress law respecting religion -and you'll get many articles explaining the context and limits the First Amendment have placed upon our government. The Religion Clauses do, in fact, establish a clear boundary between the religions practiced by citizens and residents of the U.S., and the government.
The courts have ruled over the years that the government cannot limit the practice of religion (so long as no laws are broken), and it cannot pass laws that favor a religion or its institutions.
It's better that way. Would you want to end up living in a country ruled by fundamentalists? Oh, wait, our Pres...
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
Fundamentalism is not the majority religion in the USA. Christianity is (currently) the majority religion in the USA. Fundamentalist Christianity is actually a minority within Christianity. They're just really high profile, and purport to represent more than they actually do. Kinda like Fundamental Islamists within Islam.
...is when you donate 10 bucks to an organization and then they proceed to blow that ten bucks on sending you keychains, notepads, organizers and calendars every few weeks for the indefinate future. I wish there was a check box like "take this $10 and be grateful and please limit your correspondence with me to ONE time per year of your choosing".
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?