Re: Pa Ventura’s June 24 comment, “To free speakers�:
The comment claimed that the American Civil Liberties Union is betraying its free speech principles. Not so.
Like many nonprofits, the ACLU is in the process of reviewing its board members’ fiduciary and governance roles. In a meeting last month, the ACLU’s 83-member board discussed those topics, including draft language proposed by a board committee that many ACLU board and staff leaders criticized as conflicting with our organization’s abiding commitment to robust freedom of speech.
I am pleased to report that the committee has now withdrawn that proposed language. The ACLU has always stood for free speech and robust debate and always will. I wanted to share this information with The Star and its readers, and also to stress that, regardless of internal ACLU debates about governance issues, our board and staff leaders are united behind our vigorous challenges to the Bush administration’s abuses of power — torture and extraordinary rendition, illegal domestic spying and unprecedented government secrecy.
— Nadine Strossen, President, ACLU, New York
I hear a bunch of horses running and somebody playing a horn.