U.S. civil liberties questioned in second Town Hall installment

U.S. civil liberties questioned in second Town Hall installment

by Ryan Schreiber
Michigan Journal
10/05/2004

The "Hope Not Hate" Town Hall series continued on Thursday with two distinct speakers in an attempt to question and clarify civil liberties within the United States.

A crowd of approximately 40 people were present in room 1030 CASL to listen to former State Representative David E. Bonior and Noel Salah, a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Bonior, who served the State of Michigan for 26 years, spoke about the injustice within the United States today.

"You have to take justice...you have to fight for it," Bonior said.

"We have to stand up and fight for who we are and what we believe in," he added.

Topics such as American rights at work, foreign work and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were all points of his speech.

"Civil liberties are worth holding onto," Bonior said. Bonior had to leave soon after his talk was complete in order to catch a flight but was happy to have the chance to talk to the students of UM-D.

Razi Jafri, a representative from Americans for Informed Democracy and a student of UM-D, helped to bring the speakers to Thursday's event.

"We can't expect to change other people until we change ourselves," Jafri said while introducing the day's next speaker.

Noel Salah spoke last and focused the majority of his thoughts on the Patriot Act and the looming prosect of Patriot Act II.

"[The Patriot Act] is a critical issue...it always needs further discussion and exploration," Salah said.

Salah then compared the Patriot Act to the U.S. Bill of Rights, saying, "What should make us unique are the core values in our Bill of Rights."

The conclusion of Salah's talk yielded a question and answer period where such things as challenging the Patriot Act and whether a similar incident to 9/11 could happen again were discussed.