Editorial
Editorial
Voting, Green Living and the ACLU
November
is a time of transitions. Here in Vermont, we are beginning to get serious
cold weather, the leaves are gone; we must get ready for winter. It is
the time of elections for us at the state and national levels, and the
results will help determine the direction we take from here: whether toward
increasing repression and violence, or instead toward healing and peace.
And it's the time of holidays, families and feasting and remembering the
good things we have.
There isn't much more to be said about
voting, except to urge everyone to vote!! Vote early by mail, or make
sure you can get to the polls on November 7 to cast your ballot. Voting
is our right, and we all need to exercise it, every chance we have. It's
up to us to make sure we continue to have the right to vote, the right
to speak out and to live our lives in a free and open manner.
Thanks to observant reader Tammy Higgins
for bringing the following to our attention: Green Living, A Practical
Journal for Friends of the Environment, a quarterly with offices in Randolph,
has managed to offend us. In a somewhat humorous column titled "Fear
Factor - Vermont!" the author kids us with the statement that Vermont
has a lot to be scared of, including "Coyotes, black ice, mud, cluster
flies, head lice, school budgets, Act 250, tent caterpillars, maple thrips,
Quebec drivers, identity theft, gay marriage, and Yankee Nuclear."
While amused by the list, I also wonder,
for about the thousandth time, WHAT is it people are so afraid of? Referring
to gay marriage, I mean. I can only say, Green Living, I didn't expect
to find this in your otherwise progressive magazine. It's really our community
that has reason to be afraid: of harassment, of ostracism, of rejection
by family members, of internalized homophobia, of losing our jobs or homes.
It's the old case of putting the shoe on the other foot. It's kind of
like our not-fairly-elected president crying "terrorism" while
carrying out terrorist activities (and would it surprise you to know that
Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former South African President Nelson
Mandela, during his 27 years of imprisonment by the white majority government,
was labeled a "terrorist" by those officials?).
While we're on the subject, sometimes
the very groups that promise to fight on our behalf may be guilty of stepping
on our rights as well. The past few years, the American Civil Liberties
Union has been the subject of increased scrutiny as it has allegedly bent
its own ideals to go along with some U.S. policies to detect "suspected
terrorists."
Recently, a group of ACLU supporters,
by the name of Save the ACLU, stated that the organization must recognize
its failures and replace its national leaders. The group has accused those
leaders of attempting to "impose gag rules on staff, subject staff
to email surveillance,... and purge the ACLU of its internal critics,"
among other things.
Allen Gilbert, executive director
of ACLU Vermont, told OITM that the ACLU has "undergone a phenomenal
growth spurt since 2001," due largely to people's fears of loss of
civil liberties under the current administration. He said the resulting
"growing pains," combined with the strong personalities of ACLU
leaders, seem to be at the heart of the conflict.
It's hard to say exactly what's been
going on at ACLU headquarters. It is a fact that the ACLU has engaged
in some questionable fundraising practices, such as asking donors for
credit card numbers over the telephone.
The ACLU is important to all of us,
and I hope it will continue as a beacon for human rights for a long time
to come. It has long been a supporter of LGBT rights, including bringing
the first lawsuit in support of same-sex marriage in 1972. More recently,
the ACLU's successes include advocating on behalf of California HIV-positive
inmates' rights to spousal family visits; in Arkansas, for the right of
households with gay members to be foster parents; and in Georgia, affirming
the right of gay high school students to have their own social club.
It's
important for supporters to hold the ACLU, and all organizations, accountable.
Unless civil rights organizations hold to their ideals, they, too, can
become part of the problem. Just like elected officials.
Unless we all act, and vote, and talk
to others about the need to preserve our freedoms, our right to sit down
to a holiday dinner with our chosen loved ones may not be so easily taken
for granted. We have the right to fight for what is ours; the right to
live our lives without fear of violence or bias towards us. We also have
the right to speak up when someone offends us - even if offense was not
intended.
By engaging ourselves in the process
and working together, we can make a difference.
Please have a safe and happy November.
We'll see you here again next month.
Lynn
McNicol, Editor