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ACLU TV Ad "Founding Father"

Document Date: July 15, 2003

ACLU TV Ad “Founding Father”

SETTING: We are inside an archetypal classroom setting. Peopled with students from a wide array of ethnicities 12- & 13-year-old kids. We will hear their teacher’s voice but we do not actually see him revealed until the end.

TEACHER(O.S.): “What makes the Constitution so special?”

STUDENT # 1: “It protects my rights.”

STUDENT # 2: “Like my right to privacy.”

STUDENT # 3: “And my right to free speech!”

STUDENT # 4: “Yeah, but there’s a new law that lets the police search our homes and not even tell us.”

STUDENT # 5: “No way!”

STUDENT # 4: “The government can force libraries to tell them what you’re reading.”

STUDENT # 6: “What we do on the Internet and…”

STUDENT # 7: “…and find out tons of private info on kids like us and our families.”

STUDENT # 3: Isn’t the whole idea of the Constitution to guarantee our rights?”

STUDENT # 8: “And to protect us from stuff like that?”

CAMERA PANS TO REVEAL TEACHER TO BE ONE OF THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION (I.E. GEORGE WASHINGTON, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, ETC) IN COLONIAL DRESS WHO THOUGHTFULLY COMMENTS:

FRAMER/TEACHER: “That was the original idea.”

CUT TO: ACLU Plaque

V/O NARR: THE ACLU. BECAUSE FREEDOM CAN’T
PROTECT ITSELF.

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