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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
ACLU Conference 2006 - So cool
So, as Jim would say: It’s over! The conference finished up yesterday afternoon; I am hanging out in my hotel room until it is time to head back to the train and then home this afternoon. As I had hoped, this was just an amazing experience. For me, the conference material itself was great but was hardly the reason I came. The people the ACLU brings together at this kind of event are intelligent, energetic, and just plain fun to hang out with.
This year I was lucky that I found a great group of people to hang out with. At dinner the first night I joined a table with a bunch of law students from the Brooklyn School of Law. They were part of a larger group that had been sponsored by the NY and NJ delegations that included people from Columbia, NYU, and I’m sure a few other schools.
Quite a few adventures were had including going down to the monuments in the middle of the night (note to self, finding a taxi at 11:30 pm in DC is a challenge), dancing to regae by Maxi Priest, listening to Phillip Glass and Debbie Harry, watching awesome debates with Justice Scalia, Tucker Carlson, John Dean, Rachel Maddow, hilarious satire by Roy Zimmerman and Jim Morris, and many many other events.
So thank you to Claire, Josh, Amy, Kate, Erin, Sarah, Alex, and everyone else whose names I can’t remember for helping to make this an awesome experience. It was wonderful meeting you all and sad to see you go. Hopefully I will see some of you later this year in NY or in future years at more ACLU conferences.
I may post more about specific events, so if you have questions, post them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.
There are a few more photos available on my flickr page but I was bad at remembering my camera. Hopefully I should be getting emailed some more later and I will post them then.
Freedom, Photos | Comments (0)
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Friday, September 9, 2005
There goes number 6
from the Washington Post:
A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
Net result:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Freedom, Politics | Comments (0)
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Review: The Future of Freedom
I will hardly be the first person to recommend The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria’s book on the politics of democracy and freedom, but I wanted to add my vote. I am hardly an expert in government and politics and have rarely found books on this topic that I care about deeply even remotely interesting. Zakaria does an excellent job of making his topic approachable. In reading the book I had many “ah-ha!” moments as observations and points he made clicked with things I had half observed came into focus. In addition to the history and perspective the book gave me, the critical point I think he makes is that there is a difference between democracy and freedom in a country. Both are needed, but one does not imply the other. Nor is freedom without democracy necessarily a bad thing (and sometimes is a good thing).
Good book. It will make you think. Go read it (assuming you are into thinking, that is).
Book Reviews, Freedom, Politics | Comments (0)
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Friday, January 21, 2005
New Project: Action VA
As most of you know, I am a huge supporter of the ACLU. I am also still very frustrated by recent politics. Those two facts, in combination with my recent readings of Joe Trippi’s The Revolution will not be Televised and Dan Gillmor’s We the media, has spurred me to start a new project.
The Virginia ACLU sends out emails during the legislative session highlighting bills and issues that are of concern (wither for or against). You have to sign up to get these emails and there is no online archive of them or place to discuss the issues. So, I have made one. I will be adding the “action alerts” to the website as the come out.
If you think this is a good idea, I could use all the help I can get to put the word out about the site and actually get it noticed. Thanks all!
Freedom, Geek, Links, Politics | Comments (1)
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Wednesday, November 3, 2004
what to say
I really don’t think most people want to hear what I have to say about the election. Elizabeth and my officemates have already had to endure that. So I will boil down my thoughts. I am truely disgusted by 70% of the people in this country. 30% of people who feel that Bush represents the direction this country should be moving. But far more so by the 40% of people who didn’t even bother to go and make a choice. At least Bush’s 30% believed what they believed (however stupid and misguided I may think it is) and did something about it. I hope that over the next four years I remember to ask anyone I hear complaining about the state of affairs if they voted; and if they didn’t I hope that I am only be moderatly rude to them. But we are we are now, however much I hate it.
So what do we do now?
I wish I knew. I am afraid of what this country will look like in 4 years. I am afraid that it will be changed so fundamentally that it will take decades to fix. I am afraid that an intolerant, past looking majority will continue to impose it’s moral views on me. Basically, I am just afraid. In conversation today, someone made the point that they thought this may be a point that in 30 years we look back on like McCarthyism. I hope we wise up sooner than that.
All we can do now is try to fight the good fight. I was waiting until after the election to make my annual donation to the ACLU. There are important fights that will be waged over the next years, and we can’t give up now. So I’ve made my contribution.
What happens next is really up to all of us. Don’t forget that.
Freedom, Politics | Comments (0)