El Paso County/Colorado Springs
Chapter News

By Chapter Chair Bill Hochman

The El Paso County/Colorado Springs Chapter of the ACLU has continued its efforts to make the transition from an 'organizing' organization to a proactive group. Our purpose is to establish a presence in the Community, known to citizens here, and accessible to them for information, education and guidance on matters pertaining to the Bill of Rights.

At our Annual Meeting, Lorne Kramer, former Chief of Police and now City Manager, gave a sympathetic talk about civil liberties in our community.

We also sponsored a series of forums on civil liberties in wartime, and a series of informal "Liberty Speaks" sessions where people come to a local restaurant-gallery to express their views on civil liberties issues. The last of these in August was a well-attended discussion of the recent Supreme Court decision on school vouchers. Two recent articles on vouchers written by Board members have appeared in the local press.

We had a booth at the city Spring Spree festival, and are marching with our banner and staffing a booth with ACLU materials in the Gay Pride festival. We also participated in a number of radio talk shows, a somewhat unsettling experience.

Our volunteers respond to a number of telephone inquiries each month. Most of the calls are complaints of injustices that do not actually involve civil liberties. They are referred to appropriate community organizations. Others involve matters than can be resolved by a mediating letter. For example, we were able to resolve a controversy over the status of gay and lesbian students at a local high school.

El Paso County and Colorado Springs residents may have noticed our advertisements in selected local publications. We regard these advertisements as important in establishing our presence in the community and publicizing our events. There are thousands of people here who are not cowed by the prevailing conservative and evangelical mood and are sensitive to civil liberties issues. One of our most important endeavors is to draw more of these people to become members of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In all of this, we are energized, perhaps haunted, by the threat to civil liberties posed by the USA PATRIOT Act and recent governmental policies and actions. This is indeed a crisis time for civil liberties in our country, which is not likely to end soon. We are eager to do all we can in advocating for a sane balance between concerns for security and the preservation of precious rights and liberties.