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By Don Noel
Chair, ACLU of Connecticut In the wake of the horrible Cheshire murders, the General Assembly is considering Draconian measures, including the kind of three-strikes-you're-out law that you can read about (and please write your legislators about!) elsewhere on this website. We're urging a a rational response to an emotional stimulus. The General Assembly will convene soon in special session to act on a package. There will also be a long list of other issues affecting civil liberties when the regular session resumes in February. That's one of the reasons we're here. And we need your help. The Union and the Foundation Not everyone understands that the ACLU of Connecticut is really two organizations. The ACLU Foundation of Connecticut accepts tax-deductible gifts to support our public-education efforts and our litigation in defense of civil liberties. (Full disclosure: We'll come to you in late spring asking for your help in those efforts.) But we also need support for our legislative lobbying, which cannot by law draw on tax-deductible gifts. That part of our work is sustained in part by your annual membership renewal. We're asking for an additional gift, beyond your basic $20 membership, to what we call in shorthand the Union, our non-tax-deductible arm. Electing our Boards We also seek your vote for a slate of members of each organization's governing board. When you vote and then donate, you'll have an opportunity to join our "Email Activist Network." Bottom line: We need your support. Help us elect a Board to govern the next two years. Lend your voice occasionally to our legislative efforts. Chip in $35 to $200 to help defray legislative costs. Edmund Burke is credited with saying, Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Thomas Paine phrased it thus: Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. You get the picture. Give us a hand. Thank you.
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