ACLU Forum at UNCA on Right to Dissent - Clare Hanrahan

UNCA in Asheville hosted a forum by ACLU on the right to dissent. It started out about protester's rights and restrictions and ended up as a grilling of Chief Hogan and Sheriff Duncan. They had rote answers welcoming residents to come and talk to them about their concerns. Some people stated that they have been for years. Clare Hanrahan, local writer, speaker and activist, gave a very powerful speech. She received applause throughout her speech and at the conclusion got a standing ovation. Listen to her powerful words:



I got choked up halfway through. Nothing new for me. She spoke so powerfully and with words that invoked the passion we all feel in the antiwar movement.

Thanks, Clare!

You DO Have a Right to Dissent! We Swear!

Anyone who has ever taken to the streets in protest needs to be at UNCA on Thursday night. A forum on 'Your Right to Dissent' will be held at the Highsmith Center on September 27, 2007, at 7pm. If you cannot make it to UNCA, WPVM 103.5FM will be broadcasting the forum live. The moderator will be Professor Mark Gibney and panelists include Dr. Dwight Mullen, Attorney Frank Goldsmith, Clare Hanrahan, Sheriff Duncan among others. The free forum is organized by the WNC and UNCA student chapters of the ACLU and is sponsored by a wide coalition of organizations, including MAIN and WPVM. The forum will discuss your rights and restrictions on exercising free speech, free assembly and other constitutional rights.
With our rights being stripped from us on a daily basis, this forum is very important. If you would like more information, contact Alex Cury at 253-5088 or email her at acury@juno.com.

Burden of Conscience - Rise Up!

I am burdened...burdened with a conscience. Burdened to stand up for peace and against an unjust war. It is my duty as a mother ...wife ...sister ...daughter to defend our nation from tyranny. In all our protesting, we get many honks and waves of support and solidarity. But where are these people? Why do they not rise up as well? Do they not care enough to allow an hour a week to rise up and be heard?

Remember, we ARE the people. Use your voice.

“Arise then, women of this day!”

We must lead the way
We must find the courage to face the horror
We must come together
Out of the despair

We must move
Beyond personal desperation
To make our collective power
Visible

Women: Rise!
Stand together
All over the world
To demand-with a thundering cry
No More War!

Let us meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead,
Julia Ward Howe pleaded in her 1870 Mothers’ Day Proclamation.

“Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity
And for the sake of the good, green Earth

Rise, Women, Rise!*

- Clare Hanrahan, author of, Jailed for Justice, A Woman’s Guide to Federal Prison Camp (part of a speech given Mother’s Day, 2002, at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Clare can be reached at - chanrahan@ncpress.net)