Your Local Papers, Your Own Words

SPEAK OUT IN YOUR LOCAL PAPERS Send a letter to the Editor and help reach Congress today, before new legislation whitewashes illegal spying. TONIGHT ON "THE COLBERT REPORT" Tonight at 11:30 PM ET, I'll be appearing on "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central (visit their web site for more show times). WATCH OUR TOWN HALL Watch or listen to our second National Town Hall on Spying, Secrecy and Presidential Power. LEARN MORE Learn more about illegal government spying on Americans The State of Our Union Cannot Be Strong if the President Continues to Violate the Law Dear T., Since the Bush administration began to abuse its lawful powers, the ACLU has fought in the courts, at the Capitol and in the court of public opinion to check these abuses, hold our leaders accountable and correct the mistakes that are sadly inevitable when leaders misuse the power granted them. Though public alarm over illegal spying continues to grow, our voices must be louder if we hope to reach lawmakers before they pass troubling new legislation that would excuse and expand the government’s assault on the Constitution. We need your help amplifying our message in your community this week, today, and we’ve created a new way for you to speak out: a web tool to help you write your local newspapers and defend the values of freedom and fairness in your own words. Rather than standing up to the White House and pushing for a full investigation of the president’s warrantless surveillance program, the Senate is now considering two bills that would reward the administration’s stonewalling of Congress, whitewash numerous violations of the Constitution, and effectively ratify NSA spying on Americans after the fact. Congress should be enforcing our system of checks and balances. The laws we elected Congress to uphold mean nothing if the president is allowed to break them without consequence. The debate is not over yet. As officials return home for the Congressional recess, these two dangerous bills await committee discussion in the Senate. By writing to your local papers now, you can help bring our message not only to your neighbors, but directly to the offices of your Members of Congress, where staffers and lawmakers themselves follow opinions from home with an especially watchful eye. Please try our Letters to the Editor tool right now. It makes it easy to submit a personal message to your local news outlet. To help get you started, we’ve provided simple talking points on spying, the law and presidential power. Join the ACLU and its allies and send a forceful message to Congress. Our representatives must in the president’s abuses of power and stand up to defend our fundamental freedoms. You and I know that our leaders must stand up for the America that we all believe in. We must not remain on the sidelines while the president runs roughshod over the law and extinguishes the light of our most fundamental freedoms. To compose your Letter to the Editor, go to: http://www.aclu.org/lte To learn more about our ACLU v. NSA lawsuit, go to: http://www.aclu.org/nsaspying Thank you for being an active part of this fight. Sincerely, Anthony D. Romero Executive Director