ACLU's StandUp Teams Up with Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist Matt Bors

March 24, 2008 12:00 am

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NEW YORK –Today, the American Civil Liberties Union announced the launch of Civil Discourse, a bi-weekly comic strip created for the ACLU by nationally syndicated cartoonist Matt Bors. Civil Discourse is part of the ACLU’s StandUp campaign, an ongoing project that educates younger audiences about today’s pressing civil liberties issues. The strip can be seen online at www.aclu.org/StandUp

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Bi-weekly Civil Discourse Uses Humor to Inspire a New Generation of Activists


Read Matt Bors’ New Comic “Civil Discourse” >>

NEW YORK –Today, the American Civil Liberties Union announced the launch of Civil Discourse, a bi-weekly comic strip created for the ACLU by nationally syndicated cartoonist Matt Bors. Civil Discourse is part of the ACLU’s StandUp campaign, an ongoing project that educates younger audiences about today’s pressing civil liberties issues. The strip can be seen online at www.aclu.org/StandUp

“Matt’s cartoons are often about civil liberties violations and other injustices,” said Anthony Romero, ACLU executive director. “We’re excited to have someone as original and talented as Matt help us inspire the next generation of civil libertarians.”

The ACLU’s work with Matt began more than a year ago, when the StandUp campaign enlisted him to create a short-run series of print comics about civil liberties. The success of those led to the creation of Civil Discourse, an entirely new series of comic strips that are available exclusively on the StandUp website.

Subversive cartoons, in formats ranging from the graphic novel to the online comic strip have exploded in popularity in the past two decades, and comics have a long history of educating people about injustice. In a time of unprecedented civil liberties violations, Civil Discourse is an ideal way for the ACLU to communicate with younger audiences about the issues that impact their lives.

“We’ve seen a lot of our civil liberties trampled on over the last few years and the ACLU has been fighting back regardless of which way the political wind blows. I’m proud to be working with them.” said Bors. “With Civil Discourse, I want to make people laugh, but I also want them to think about their how important their rights are.”

About Matt Bors www.mattbors.com: Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated cartoonist with United Feature Syndicate who lives in Portland, OR. His editorial cartoons appear in papers across the country including The Village Voice, the Cleveland Free Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He’s created comics for The Nation, CampusProgress.org, Free Inquiry and The Oregonian.

About StandUp www.aclu.org/standup:
StandUp is the ACLU’s campaign for students and young people. Started in 2004, the ongoing project seeks to educate, inspire and activate the next generation of civil libertarians. About the ACLU www.aclu.org: The American Civil Liberties Union is the nation’s number one defender of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and has played a major role in nearly every key civil liberties battle of the last century. Whether you’re young, old, rich, poor, straight, gay, black, white, male, female, pious or atheist—every person in this country should have the same basic rights. Since 1920, the ACLU has been working hard to make sure no one takes these rights away.

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