Leftists Purging History or Al Queda in America

[vorlon13]

I joined the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union during the last half of the 1980s. I was leading a pretty complicated life (LOL) and thought my involvement with the ACLU was a good match with everything else I was doing.

At the time I was working for a defense contractor, and 'management' was entirely out in the open about their conservative bent (failed SCOTUS nominee Robert Bork even being on the board of directors), I was up to my eyeballs, so to speak, in volunteering for an HIV hospice group, was quite active in 12 Steppers and gay 12 steppers, was in gay rights marches in Dubuque (that one had a bomb threat), Iowa City (Our Liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain!), and Chicago. It was an exciting time, I was younger and had the energy to stay that involved in all that.

I recall an ACLU conference in (IIRC) Champaign Urbana, but maybe Peoria(?) that was an eye opener regarding pedophilia in the priesthood and several censorship controversies.

I was also involved in a library board taking almost unbelievably heat for wanting to have the Madonna book "Sex" on it's shelves and there being one (2?) public meetings on it and our ACLU group went.

I remember marching with the ACLU contigent in a couple of parades and hearing some catcalls/verbal abuse from the crowd.

Additionally, this was the 80's, as I recall around 10 years after the Skokie controversy and there were folks at the meetings that had been around for THAT.

The recent spate of controversies seems to be getting ahead of the ACLU, but I admit in this rural backwater I'm in, I'm not plugged into that anymore.