Greyhound allows U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents to carry out random searches for undocumented immigrants on their buses without a warrant. The ACLU wants passengers left alone.
In this uncertain post-recession era, economic inequality seems to be the only thing you can count on being in full supply. It’s certainly a subject that’s increasingly on people’s lips – thanks in no small part to Jacob Kornbluth’s 2013 documentary, Inequality for All. The film, wryly narrated by economist Robert Reich, lays out Reich’s astute perspective on how our country has arrived at the point where 400 Americans own more wealth than the entire bottom half of the country combined.
Sunday the Southern California Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union will screen Inequality for All, an event that will serve as a refresher course for some and an eye-opener for others who have not seen the film. Afterwards, Harold Meyerson, American Prospect editor-at-large and Washington Post columnist, will offer his always lively insights into what’s happened since the documentary’s premier, along with a discussion of commercial property tax reform.
» Read more about: Harold Meyerson Speaks on ‘Inequality for All’ »
Tuesday’s bimonthly SoCal ACLU discussion forum will address the topic of women’s rights. Organized by the ACLU’s Pasadena/Foothills chapter, the event promises to be a much larger event than usual, prompting the chapter’s Sharon Kyle to announce its move to a bigger venue. Discussion topics will focus on women’s economic, political, social and legal rights, said Kyle, who publishes LA Progressive. Four guest speakers include the California president of the National Organization for Women, Patty Bellasalma; Service Employees International Union United Long Term Care Workers president Laphonza Butler; attorney and activist Sandra Fluke (who so angered Rush Limbaugh two years back), and Occidental College professor Thalia González.
Kyle, who says that she and other black women haven’t always felt connected to the women’s movement, thinks this particular topic is ready for revisiting. For Kyle, the intersection of race and gender is central to the Women’s Rights Forum.
» Read more about: Laphonza Butler, Sandra Fluke Speak at Women’s Forum »
The Pasadena/Foothills Chapter of American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California ACLU-SC honored longtime Los Angeles Times journalist, editor and commentator Tim Rutten at its 12th Annual Garden Party on October 2 at the Western Justice Center in Pasadena. Rutten, who had been let go this past summer after nearly 40 years at the Times, spoke to the more than 100 attendees of the threat to civil liberties by the demise of the press in the country and concentration into fewer and fewer corporate hands. He talked about a wide range of topics concerning knowledge, ignorance, and the consequences of media conglomeration.
“The coming concentration of the media is probably a bigger threat to your civil liberties than anything the government’s doing right now,” he said.
“Knowledge isn’t just power, it’s self-protection. Most of the newspapers in this country today are hollow shells of what they were 10 years ago and sadly diminished from what they were five years ago,” Rutten continued.
» Read more about: Tim Rutten: Corporate Media Concentration a Big Threat »