August 19, 2003

Update On The Portland Bill Of Rights Defense Committee's Proposed Civil Liberties Resolution

I have essentially steared clear of covering the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee since I left the group, for which I had been an organizer, at the end of June. Mainly, for me, it was a matter of needing some psychological distance from that particular project once I had departed.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't, at some point, come back and pass along an update on what's going on with the group and it's mission to convince the Portland City Council to pass a resolution in protest of the USA PATRIOT Act, and affirming the civil liberties of Portland residents.

Here's what the current update on the PDX BoRDC website has to say:

For the past two months, the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee has held several meetings with every City Commissioner's office, including the Mayor's office. All commissioners have expressed interest in it. The current draft of the resolution is currently being reviewed by the City Attorney's office.

The current draft is based on the resolution passed by Lane County and an ACLU template. This seven page document states explicitly what provisions of the Patriot Act undermine the Bill of Rights and instructs the city how to not support the federal government in implementing these provisions.

Now don't mistake the following comment for whining, but I find it ironically amusing that they are using a more comprehensive resolution, given that my suggestion (when I was still involved) that we move to a better draft text was vetoed on the grounds that we shouldn't switch gears when we already had organizational and individual support based upon our original text.

But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Moving to a more comprehensive resolution is the right thing to do, and they've done it, and they've seemingly made more progress speaking with members of Council than they did when I was on board as an organizer. See their website for details on what you can do to help their campaign.

Meanwhile, relatedly, see the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee for information about a statewide Bill of Rights Defense rally this week in Salem. It's part of the push to convince the Legislature to pass a civil liberties resolution as three other state legislatures have done thus far.

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