[461] in libertarians
IRF Info/Beg Letter.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vernon Imrich)
Tue Dec 6 20:27:23 1994
To: ocschwar@MIT.EDU
Cc: libertarians@MIT.EDU, safe@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 1994 20:24:51 EST
From: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>
Omri,
Thought you might want to bring this up with your Frat, or with other
frats or be personally interested in it. Feel free to redistribute:
For others, this may be of general interest.
Individual Rights Foundation (beg letter)
Dear Friend:
Are you angry that so many of America's institutions are in the hands
of liberals, radicals and the politically correct? If you are, here's
a story that will gladden your heart.
At the Universtity of California at Riverside last October, a fraternity
was about to be punished for its "insensitivity." The crime: members
had worn T-shirts depicting a Mexican watching a sunset with a bottle
of beer in his hand.
[vri: we have this pic in the safe locker I think]
When radical groups on campus protested, the adminsitration ordered
the fraternity chapter dissovled for three years.
This sort of thing happens all the time on American campuses. Students
who fancy themselves victims complain about an imagined insult, and
without a second thought the administration imposes a punishment on
the "insensitive" perpetrators.
But this time, the fraternity members fought back. They were not
racists; this was the most diverse fraternity on campus, and the Mexican
members agreed the complaints were ridiculous. So they contacted me at
the Individual Rights Foundation, and we agreed to sue the university
on the grounds that their First Amendment right to free speech was
being violated.
We won. The punishment was dropped. But here's the best part of the
story:
AS PART OF THE SETTLEMENT, TWO OF THE COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS WERE
REQUIRED TO UNDERGO "FIRST AMENDMENT SENSITIVITY TRAINING."
For the first time, the politically correct bullies of the left were not
only defeated, they were given a meaningful (and, to them, humiliating)
punishment.
I'm John Howard, president of the Individual Rights Foundation. We
are a public service law firm dedicated to protecting the Bill of
Rights -- especially in cases where political correctness conflicts
with civil liberties.
I'm writing to you to today to ask your support of our work.
We are a small organization, just one year old, operating on a shoestring.
But we have already won 7 cases against colleges and universities that
were violating student's First Amendment rights -- maybe more by the
time you are reading this.
David Horowitz and I founded the Individual Rights Foundation (IRF) out
of our concern that the traditional civil liberties defenders like the ACLU
had a blind spot when it came to the rights of those who disagree with
the prevailing liberal culture.
As Alan Dershowitz, the liberal attorney and a former mmember of the
ACLU board, put it, "The ACLU is caught in a tug of war between civil
liberties and the politics of the left. And the politics of the left
is winning. The ACLU today is ready to sacrifice principle for
expediency."
Meanwhile civil liberties offenses mount. Codes of conduct on campuses
make a criminal out of any student who offends a member of protected
"victim" group. You may remember the student at the University of
Pennslyvania who was nearly expelled for calling members of a black
sorority "water buffalo" as they engaged in a disruptive midnight party
outside his window. No one could find a racial meaning in "water
buffalo" -- but that made no difference to the cowardly administrators
as they vigorously pursued this dangerous "racist."
This well publicized case is just one of thousands of similar stories.
On campus after campus, the new thought police trample on students'
and professors' rights to free speech in the name of sensitivity.
Now, thanks to the publicity we received from the Riverside fraternity
case, we have been inundated with requests for help in similar cases.
For example:
A high school student used the word "feminazi" in a campaign speech
for student body vice president. This offended some female faculty
members. As a result, the student, a senior, was expelled from the
school and not allowed to return.
My friend, do you care that our traditional liberties are under
attack and the bullies of the left reign unchallenged?
If you do, I urge you to become a Charter Member of the Individual
Rights Foundation with a contribution of $25 or more.
The ACLU has a budget of $30 million and 300,000 members for its
national operations alone. Our 1993 budget was only $200,000 and
we're just beginning to seek out people like you to build a grassroots
membership.
But what a bang we get for the buck!
When we take a case, we almost always prevail. For example, we recently
wona case in which Wake Forest University tried to punish the conservative
newspaper for publishing a devastating expose of Maya Angelou, the poet
who spoke at President Clinton's inaugural ceremonies.
Ms. Angelou, a model of multicultural sensitivity and political correctness,
had been appointed "Professor for Life" at Wake Forest. She was receiving
an annual salary of well over $100,000 for duties which consisted
essentially of nothing.
She was teaching no classes and had no plans to teach any. She had no
other responsibilities at the university. Her office address turned out
to be a storage closet.
The university wasn't happy to see these facts made public, and tried to
punish the newspaper. But with one letter from our attorney, the
university backed down. Case closed.
Our very existence has caused many college administrators to stop and
think before they take action against students who are exercising their
constitutional right of free speech.
Like all bullies, the politically correct thought police have few
defenses against opponents who take a firm stand against them, supported
by the truth.
And every victory we achieve reverberates throughout the academic
community.
We operate very inexpensively because our associated attorneys volunteer
their time. Even so, just to handle our current requests we need to
raise at least $160,000 within 28 days.
And we want to broaden our mission as quickly as possible -- to take our
fight beyond the universities to wherever rights are being violated with
impunity.
We began on the campuses, because the most outrageous cases were
occuring there, ans we knew we could get quick results. But throughout
America there is an ongoing attack on individual liberty. Landowners
are losing their property rights to the notions of radical
environmentalists. Legitimate gun-owners are harassed by government
agencies. Scientists' life work is destroyed by animal rights
extremists.
And everywhere, group rights are replacing individual right, creating
massive resentment among people who find that they count for
nothing if they do not belong to an accredited "victim" group.
The IRF plans to work on all these fronts. But our future depends on you.
Right now we can afford to write to only a small group of potential
donors. We're not like the Republican National Committee, or other
large organizations, which can send out millions of letters asking
for support.
We've carefully selected just a few lists of people that we think most
likely to understand and appreciate what we are doing. You are one of
these people. Every single response we receive, and every dollar, is
very important to us. So if you turn us down, it is a serious setback to
our cause.
Membership in the IRF is $25 per year. As a member you will recieve
a subscription to The Defender, our bi-monthly newspaper. This is not a
dry legal journal, but a lively report on our battles against political
correctness -- and, usually, a celebration of our victories over the
thought police of the left.
If you can contribute more than the $25 membership fee, we would greatly
appreciate you gift of $35, $50, $100 or more.
But if $25 is too much for you right now, we will be greateful for your
$10 or $15 or whatever you can send.
[brief description of other enclosed materials, including a letter
of encouragement from author Tom Clancy]
My colleagues and I thank you for your support.
Sincerely yours
John W. Howard
President
Individual Rights Foundation
3401 Ocean View Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91208-9930
Make checks payable to: Individual Rights Foundation
Contributions are tax deductible.
The IRF is a division of the Center for Study of Popular Culture (CSPC)
[and other boring legal info follows which I'm too tired to type]
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