Since September 11, 2001, our government has embarked on a wholesale revision of our basic rights: discrimination against immigrants, detentions, domestic spying, and government secrecy have been carried out in the name of security. But the ACLU has fought at each step and continues to fight for a vision of American security that includes preserving our freedom, our democratic institutions, and our fundamental rights.
The ACLU is founded on principles: liberty, justice, equality. But our struggle to implement this vision is far from abstract, in both its sources and its results, as you’ll see in the lives we’ve highlighted in this report. Our efforts are grounded in, informed by, and seek to change the real life experience of ordinary people whose freedom is imperiled, who live with injustice, or whose lives and opportunities are shaped by inequality.
Even as we fight the government’s attempt to take back freedom, we seek to build our vision of freedom and greater equality in everything from education, where our landmark statewide class action suit presses for accountability in the provision of adequate educational opportunities for all California students, to foster care, to the rights of immigrant workers to organize. In our policy work and in our litigation, we actively seek opportunities to create an impact on the shape of our society. And in 2002, we acted on many of these opportunities including our successful intervention bid in the LAPD consent decree on behalf of communities affected by police abuse, our fight for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students to attend schools without being harassed, and our victory in reforming our system of voting.
Guided by principle, grounded in experience, our work has thousands of faces, and it is a few of these faces we’d like to show you, close-up, in this report. The face of a woman who served her country, only to be told that because she’s an immigrant she wouldn’t be able to continue her work, the face of a mother who’s looking at 25 years of separation from her son because of California’s draconian Three Strikes law, and the face of a young woman eager for an education her school is incapable of fully providing.
Your continued support helps us as we seek to rewrite the stories of hundreds of thousands of people just like those we’ve profiled in this report. Thank you for your collaboration in helping us build freedom and make history.
Date
Friday, November 1, 2002 - 1:00pm
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We envision a society that invests in very individual by providing all children with a good education and other necessities for success. No society can neglect such an investment without reaping the terrible fruit of exclusion: division, despair, and fear.
Finally, we believe that our success as a society ultimately rests on caring for each other and on developing a culture of shared responsibility. We are fi ghting for a society whose response to a hearing-impaired boy whose family can’t afford a hearing aid and who is falling further and further behind in school as a result will no longer be, “Tough luck.” We’re fi ghting for a society that no longer tells a nonviolent Three Strikes offender, “You’re trash. We’re throwing you away.”
Respect for and belief in our common humanity is the thread that runs through all of our work. Together, we’re creating a society that’s based on openness, inclusion, and compassion. Thank for your visionary contribution to a better California.
Date
Saturday, November 1, 2003 - 1:00pm
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Guided by principles, not polls, we do the hard, unglamorous work of protecting those who are suffering injustice or whom the system has failed. One of the largest ACLU affiliates in the country, we are fortunate to have a diligent legal and policy staff who fulfill our mission every day in courtrooms and communities across California. Our commitment stems from the belief that “equality, liberty and justice for all” is more than a slogan. It is a profound promise that we all must turn into reality.
These pages will give you a window into the diverse nature of our work. Think of it as a scrapbook highlighting a select few victories in areas like education, voting rights and privacy. Victories you helped make possible by your support.
Nationally, we have fought to stop the federal government from using a time of crisis as a pretext to erode our constitutional rights, and, since California often sets the tone for the rest of the nation, we have been working hard to defend personal liberty and promote sane public policy here in the Golden State.
A publication like this can only provide snapshots focusing on a small sampling of the vast range of issues we confront. There is so much more we wish we could tell you about in detail: our successful efforts to stop housing discrimination and to promote freedom of speech in our schools; our ongoing efforts to protect your privacy and defend reproductive rights; our victories in advancing equality for lesbian and gay couples and preventing illegal deportations; our long-standing battles to reform the wasteful, unjust “three strikes” policy and to ensure healthcare for the millions of Californians who are without medical care or who are only one or two medical bills away from financial ruin.
We are so proud to serve this community and the values that we all hold dear. Remembering always that an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, we will keep working hard, every day. We will work to help create a society that honors the dignity of every individual, the health of every family, whether large or small, and the well-being of every community. Thank you for being part of our team. With your support we will continue to advance the promise of “equality, liberty and justice for all” because your freedom is our business.
Date
Monday, November 1, 2004 - 1:00pm
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