whitebeard

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April 20, 2005

Dear Friends of the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience:

This Sunday, April 24th, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will be joining major Christian fundamentalist leaders in a national telecast from Louisville to challenge the independence and legitimacy of the court system, calling the courts “out of control”. As the NY Times put it 4/16/05: "The telecast also signals an escalation of the campaign for the rule change by Christian conservatives who see the current court battle as the climax of a 30-year culture war, a chance to reverse decades of legal decisions about abortion, religion in public life, gay rights and marriage.” [See article links at end of message.]

Bold opposition to Frist and these moves could galvanize much wider opposition. We are witnessing here moves to destroy the whole system of checks and balances, to destroy the separation between church and state, and to cement in place one-party, theocratic rule. See the Family Research Council website (http://www.frc.org/ ) for information on Sunday’s event. Contact Not In Our Name (NION@cloud9.net ) for information on counter protests in Louisville. Join in if you possibly can.

If you can’t get to Louisville, there are other avenues to speak out on this issue:
-- Send this e-mail out to family, friends. Post it to bulletin boards and blogs.
-- Pass out the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience (NION SOC) at churches, synagogues, temples and mosques; work places, union halls, organization meetings. Pass the statement out at a church in your area that will be part of the simulcast. (download the whole statement at http://www.nion.us/NSOC/NewNIONflyer.pdf ).
 --Write to the editorial page of your local newspaper (and send a copy to us for posting, NION@cloud9.net) and to post on the internet.

And especially,

-- Contribute generously to the NION SOC and encourage friends, family, co-workers and everyone you meet to do so too. The cost of "free speech" in this country is very high and as e-mails we have received testify, people need to and want to see this statement. There’s nowhere else that people are finding what is in their heads and their hearts. The suggested contribution is $200, but all contributions are very welcome. Because there are thousands of signers, not all names can appear in the printed ads, but the names of all signers are posted on the web site. Contribute on line at http://www.nion.us/READ_AND_SIGN.htm  or  make a check payable to Not In Our Name and mail to: Not In Our Name,  305 West Broadway, #199,  NY, NY 10013.

We are continuing to raise money to publish the NION SOC in Colorado, Florida and in the Columbia University newspaper, the Columbia Spectator. The publication of the NION statement in Colorado, Florida and at Columbia University will bring powerful voices of conscience and hope to those areas where progressive academics have been threatened by campus crusades led by right-wing groups.  Many people have written to us about the need to reach out to different audiences with this statement. Here is a chance to do just that and in places where the need to see this statement is great. We encourage you to contribute generously to make this happen.

With warm regards and urgency,

Janet Yip
janet@nion.us
From the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience Staff

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