Madison Group to Begin 11-Day “Fast for Justice” on Behalf of Guantánamo Detainees

Madison Group to Begin 11-Day “Fast for Justice”
on Behalf of Guantánamo Detainees
Candlelight Vigil and Capitol Procession Will Be Part of National Protest
To speak out against the continued imprisonment of detainees at the U.S. facilities in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, protestors in Madison, WI, will gather at 4 pm, January 11 at First United Methodist Church to participate in a candlelight vigil and procession around the Capitol.

The protestors, organized by Madison Pledge of Resistance, will join groups holding similar events around the country that day in response to a call to action by New York-based Witness Against Torture (www.witnesstorture.org). Witness Against Torture is organizing an 11-day fast in Washington, DC, with a nonviolent action of civil resistance planned for January 21.

January 11 will mark eight years of detention for the men in Guantanamo. On January 22, one year will have passed since President Obama signed an executive order mandating the close of the detention facility by January 22, 2010. The President has conceded that the deadline will not be met.

Regarding her own motivation to participate, Bonnie Block, a leader of Madison Pledge of Resistance, said:

I am participating in the Fast for Justice as a witness to, and a renewal of, my commitment to work for an end to all forms of torture. I do so because the Guantánamo prison has not closed and torture is being outsourced to other repressive governments. I do so because this nation continues its military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, is sending killing drones over Pakistan, and financing the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Gaza. I believe these policies are akin to torture because they too result in the destruction of human life. I think that is unconscionable and unacceptable so I feel compelled to protest.

While some members of the Madison group plan to fast for 11 days, participants are invited to join the candlelight procession and vigil whether or not they are able to fast ― or to fast at a level and for length of time that is comfortable for them. Organizers are also asking protestors to write letters to President Obama and their legislators calling on them to “shut down Guantanamo, try the men we have evidence against, and release those who should be released.”

Details of the planned Madison Fast for Justice events are as follows:
Monday, January 11, 4:00 p.m. - Gathering at First United Methodist Church, 203 Wisconsin Ave., followed by a procession around the Capitol and candlelight vigil

Saturday, January 16, 4:00 p.m. - Protestors reconvene for fellowship and reflection at the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice office at 122 State St., Room 405

Friday, January 22 - Final gathering at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 322 East Washington for participants to break their fast together.

Felon Disfranchisement is Voting Rights Violation - Appeals Court Says Justice System "Infected" With Racism

There is news in the area of voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. On January 5th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that felon disfranchisement is a direct violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court case, Farrakhan v. Gregoire, overturned previous court decisions on barring ex-felons from voting as judges said that the vast racial disparities in the criminal justice system in the State of Washington were a significant, institutional barrier to the right to vote for people of color.

The ACLU filed an amicus brief in the case because in the state of Washington, as well as in Wisconsin and around the country, taking away a citizen’s right to vote based on a past conviction has a racially discriminatory effect in a system that locks up a disproportionate number of minorities.

The court found among many other things that the state of Washington's criminal justice system was "infected" with racial discrimination. That’s a strong statement. The numbers of disproportionate minority incarceration don’t lie: In Washington, three percent of the population is African American, but 29% of their offenders are black. In Wisconsin, around five percent of our population is African American while 39% of our offenders are black.

Worst case scenarios are in Kentucky and Virginia where people never get their right to vote back, even after finishing their parole and probation. The ACLU of Virginia was among the organizations that demonstrated this week and called for an executive order to end the discriminatory policy.

The reasons for disproportionate minority incarceration are complicated, but denying ex-felons the right to vote is un-American and anti-democratic. Plain and simple. You can read the court’s opinion and you can find the ACLU amicus brief online. The ruling got some coverage in the Seattle Times and in the Seattle PI.

Our Wisconsin state legislature will start its January session on the 19th and it is a good time to remind them about how important this issue is for voting rights in our state. Call your state legislator today and remind them why the Wisconsin Democracy Restoration Act needs to be passed immediately. If you would like to volunteer for this issue, contact the ACLU of Wisconsin. Find out more about the ACLU's work on voting rights.

Cap Times: Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates Spike, Education Needed

On January 5, 2010, the Capitol Times ran a story on the epidemic rates of sexually transmitted disease and infection in Wisconsin. The article offers explanations for why STIs are spiking, especially among teens, and it looks at the cultural clash between pro-education and abstinence-only proponents.

The numbers are shocking. The article states that:

“One in four teenage girls in the U.S. has an STD, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In Wisconsin, the rate of four of the most commonly reported STDs among teens jumped 53 percent between 1997 and 2007. Females and minorities, especially African-Americans, have been hit hard. And these are numbers that have been reported; actual cases may be much higher. But it remains a hidden epidemic, not just because many STDs have no symptoms, but because of the stigma and politics that complicate efforts to fight them.”

It isn’t a coincidence that this spike in STI rates neatly matches the increase in federal funding for abstinence-only education in public schools. In 1996, Title V of the Welfare Reform Act (called the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF) set aside federal matching funds for states – schools could get much needed funds, but they had to teach abstinence rather than comprehensive sexuality education. No education equals no tools to understand how pregnancy works and how STIs are spread. In Wisconsin, Governor Doyle rejected abstinence-only money, but our public schools still aren’t treating education about STIs as a core public health need.

But with a new Obama administration, help is on the way. Last month, Congress approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010. In signing this bill, President Obama will eliminate funding for existing abstinence-only programs, fund comprehensive sex ed, and even establish and fund the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) within Health and Human Services (HHS) which will treat sex ed as a part of protecting our nation’s public health.

This long-awaited step will be the nail in the coffin of abstinence-only: its ineffective withholding of truth to young people, its wasted tax-payer money, its thinly-veiled religious indoctrination in our public schools and its sexist reliance on ancient gender stereotypes. Proponents of abstinence-only education are going to fight back against this defeat with a vengeance, but Wisconsin is set to battle ignorance with education. It’s called the Healthy Youth Act. It would raise state standards for sex ed to be complete, medically accurate, peer-reviewed and age-appropriate. And it will finally be federally funded. Now is the time for Wisconsin legislators to pass this bill.

This crisis of teen reproductive health is huge. It’s cultural. It’s financial. It’s systemic. But any public health care worker will tell you that for all the talk about health care reform and tax-dollar funded Medicaid programs, the first step in having healthy teens and a healthier country is education. Tell our state legislators to pass the Healthy Youth Act immediately in 2010.

Take action on the Healthy Youth Act! Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin have set up a web page with details on the bill, tools to contact your legislator, and write a letter to the editor. Please take action on this issue today.

We blogged about the Healthy Youth Act on World AIDS Day, after the state Assembly passed the bill, and when the bill was first introduced.

Public School Legislative Action Needed Now!

On January 6, 2010 the ACLU of Wisconsin’s executive director Christopher Ahmuty sent the following statement to members of the Wisconsin Legislature and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. He urged them to move beyond a perceived impasse on legislation to aid the Milwaukee Public Schools. Ahmuty’s statement:

"Some media, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wispolitics.com, report that after a January 5th marathon hearing on Milwaukee Public Schools, the Wisconsin Legislature is unlikely to come up with a fix for the district’s woes any time soon. As someone who attended the hearing for eight hours, I believe the media reports misrepresent the current situation.

"While the prospect of a mayoral takeover of MPS should be dead, that doesn’t mean that the Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and legislative leaders can’t or won’t display the kind of leadership on education that both opponents and proponents of mayoral control would welcome. Mayor Barrett, in particular, can still deliver for MPS and parents and students across Wisconsin by agreeing to legislation that would address the core issues we all face.

"The school funding formula adopted by the Legislature in 1992 is a shambles and needs to be replaced. Public schools need the resources to provide an adequate education to their students. Different districts have different needs. Poor rural and urban districts (including Beloit and Racine as well as Milwaukee) have challenges that wealthier districts do not face. A new formula can help districts with concentrations of poor students, English language learners, and special needs without harming districts with more advantaged students. A good way to enhance Governor Doyle legacy on educational issues might be to revisit the 2004 recommendations of Doyle’s Task Force on Educational Excellence for additional measures that would help districts across the state.

"A proposal by State Senator Spencer Coggs and State Representative Tamara Grigsby could be modified to include provisions on funding that will help districts statewide, not just Milwaukee. Barrett and legislative leaders could be statesmen, if Barrett recognizes the needs of districts statewide, just as legislators must now recognize the urgent needs of MPS, not for control, but for support from all segments of the public and all parts of Wisconsin."

You can read the ACLU's testimony from the hearing (PDF) or read our press release (PDF) on-line.

We've blogged before about the reasons why the Mayor shouldn't take over the Milwaukee Public Schools. We also tweeted live from yesterday's hearing.

The ACLU of Wisconsin was quoted on the subject in OnMilwaukee. Coverage of the hearing and the mayoral takeover issue also included Milwaukee Public Radio, TMJ4, WisPolitics, the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WISN, the La Crosse Tribune, and got a mention on Madison's Channel 3000.

Too Many Cameras on Madison's State Street?

On January 1st, the Wisconsin State Journal published an article on the success of the use of surveillance cameras on State Street in downtown Madison. The ACLU of Wisconsin expressed an initial concern with the cameras, mostly because of the ubiquity of surveillance and the need for continued vigilance on the potential for abuse of surveillance tools. The spread of the use of surveillance cameras downtown was suggested for local business too.

Since then, police say that cameras have greatly helped with fighting crime (no percentage decrease in crime was noted in the article, but a murder that got a lot of press was mentioned to have been solved). We commented on the article in an interview yesterday with WORT FM’s In Our Backyard:



It’s true that surveillance cameras can be excellent tools in identifying perpetrators who break laws. But there are also reports from across the nation (and in the UK where CCTV surveillance is huge) about the abuse and misuse of cameras. If someone used a panable, zoomable surveillance camera to spy without cause or warrant into one of the residential apartments along State St., how would residents know they were being watched? Ideally Madisonians trust police and business owners to do the right thing. But our community needs more assurance that surveillance cameras aren’t at risk for abuse.

And while we are talking about privacy and technology, is anyone else freaked out about the full body scans they are putting in airport security checkpoints? Travelers on the news are being quoted as saying that they would welcome scanners to feel safe on airplanes, but at what point will smart terrorists find a way to get explosives past even this technology? Where will American’s breaking point be where humiliation at the airport is too much to consider giving up privacy as the price of safety?

No to Mayoral Takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools - Hearing Today

We've blogged before on why the Milwaukee Mayor should not take over the Milwaukee Public Schools. Today a hearing is being held at the MPS headquarters to get public comment on this issue and ACLU supporters will be there to voice their concerns.

You can follow the live Twitter posts from the ACLU. Follow ACLUofWisconsin on Twitter today.

According to ACLU Executive Director Chris Ahmuty, the proposal to give MPS governance to the mayor is just another scheme that won’t remedy Wisconsin’s failure to provide an adequate education to far too many of Milwaukee’s children.

Rather than spending time and effort to push through a controversial takeover program, the governor, mayor and state legislators need to comply with the state Constitutional obligation to ensure that all Milwaukee children have the opportunity to obtain a meaningful, adequate education.

Persons who are genuinely concerned about student performance need to evaluate what programs and services help students succeed, and what special programs and services are needed for children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, limited English proficient children, and children with disabilities - and then ensure that MPS has the resources to implement those programs.

They also must address the reality that thousands of Milwaukee children attend taxpayer-supported private voucher schools – most of which perform no better than MPS. Yet neither the takeover proposal nor any other plan has been offered to improve education for those 21,000 Milwaukee children.

The primary constitutional responsibility for the education of Milwaukee’s children rests with the State of Wisconsin. The state needs to put adequate resources into the public school system to provide the educational services and supports those children need. It needs to ensure that the per-pupil funding for Milwaukee Public Schools students is at least comparable to that of suburban districts. It needs to phase out voucher and charter schools that are not performing, and impose the same accountability requirements on any schools that remain. Those are the reforms that will help Milwaukee students succeed.

State Legislative Leadership Afraid of Decriminalizing Medical Marijuana

It was reported in the La Crosse Tribune and in the Pierce County Herald today that the Democratic legislative leadership in both the state Senate and Assembly aren’t really excited about the proposed medical marijuana bill that got a hearing last month (AB 554/SB 368). This is disappointing in light of the national trend of more progressive policies being passed regarding decriminalizing cannabis for medical purposes (check out the Top 10 Medical Cannabis Stories from 2009 compiled on the Examiner blog by Is My Medicine Legal Yet organizer Gary Stork).

The ACLU of Wisconsin testified at the eight-hour hearing on December 15 that individuals have a right to make their own decisions regarding medical treatment free from governmental prohibition. This legislation would free health professionals and patients to determine the most effective course of treatment for chronic pain and suffering.

We also made the point that while this bill is about decriminalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes in Wisconsin, the ACLU has long supported alternatives to the failed policies of the “War on Drugs.” The criminalization of drug users has not only hurt chronically ill people and their families. But our current drug policy has led to unimaginable levels of incarceration, massive violations of civil rights and enormous fiscal costs.

The ACLU supports a drug policy that honestly and realistically seeks to promote public health and safety through regulatory policy that will benefit society, preserve individual freedom and better serve the needs of individuals. This legislation is a step in the right direction for public health.

But despite polling that suggests that public opinion is very much in favor of regulating cannabis for medical use – the bill’s sponsors said that the people are way ahead of their legislators on the issue – our state’s legislative leadership don’t seem to be willing to let the issue get a floor vote.

In states like California and Michigan, public referenda let voters get a direct voice in taking medical cannabis out of the drug war. Wisconsin could be a leader in this issue, but only if we have legislative leadership to take a step toward ending punitive drug policies that take away patients’ treatment options and deny basic individual rights.

Find out more on the work the ACLU is doing nationally on drug law reform. The ACLU of Wisconsin was Tweeting live from the hearing – you can follow us on Twitter for more news and updates on civil liberties issues. Read our blog post on the introduction of the medical marijuana bill in Wisconsin.