ACLU Leaders Featured in Book on Personal Freedom in America in the Wake of September 11 Attacks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK–National and local leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union are featured in It’s a Free Country: Personal Freedom in American After September 11, a new anthology that underscores the need for Americans to embrace and cherish our precious freedoms during times of national crisis.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, president Nadine Strossen and former executive director Ira Glasser as well as current and former executive directors of ACLU affiliates in New York and Southern California all contributed articles to this collection of personal stories, legal arguments, poems and historical reminders about the importance of preserving civil liberties in a country struggling with the aftermath of the tragic Sept. 11 attacks.

The aim of the anthology, according to its editors, is to heighten awareness about the need to defend the principles of freedom America was founded upon. As many polls have shown, many Americans are concerned about the trade-off of their basic freedoms in exchange for unproven security measures.

Other contributors to the anthology include:

• U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, Republican legislator from Georgia
• U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, Democratic legislator from Massachusetts
• Ani DiFranco, singer/songwriter who formed her own record label
• Steve Earle, singer/songwriter whose song about “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh sparked controversy
• Tom Hayden, California state senator and leader of the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 70s
• Asma Hasan, author of a book on being a young American Muslim
• Michael Isikoff, Newsweek investigative correspondent
• Andrew Kirkland, Assistant Police Chief in Portland Oregon who refused the Justice Department’s demand that he ignore Oregon state law and investigate Middle Eastern individuals not suspected of any crime
• Michael Moore, best selling author and documentary filmmaker
• U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Democratic legislator from California
• Cornel West, professor of African-American studies at Princeton University

It’s a Free Country is the debut title from RDV Books/Akashic Books. The three publishers – Danny Goldberg, Victor Goldberg and Robert Greenwald – are also the book’s editors.

Danny Goldberg is Chairman of Artemis Records, an independent recording company which represents Steve Earle, Rickie Lee Jones, Warren Zevon and others. A longtime political activist, Goldberg has written for The Nation, The American Prospect and the Los Angeles Times and is co-publisher of the magazine Tikkun along with his father Victor Goldberg. He is on the board and executive committee of the New York Civil Liberties Union and is president of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

Victor Goldberg, associate publisher of The Nation and co-publisher of Tikkun, is president of Victor Goldberg and Associates. He has been a civil liberties activist for 45 years.

Robert Greenwald, who has produced and or directed more than 45 television, cable and theatrical films, including “”Steal this Movie,”” about Abbie Hoffman, is about to release a new film, “”Unprecedented,”” a documentary about the 2000 Election.

It’s a Free Country is available in bookstores now and can be purchased online at Amazon.com . Twenty-five percent of the profits from the book are being donated to the American Civil Liberties Union and 25 percent is going to the Freedom Legal Defense and Education Project.

For a complete collection of ACLU documents, analysis and commentary on civil liberties after September 11, go to: /SafeandFree/SafeandFreelist.cfm?c=206