[CitizensTruth] Drop charges on the videographer, Nov 18, Skokie

[Jay Becker]

Everyone who's heard Sunsara speak and appreciates her contributions, everyone who values discussion of differences over suppression and calling in the law, your support is needed in the courtroom
Wed, 1:30 pm. You can get there on public too - from Chicago, take the Skokie Swift
to its end station and from there, the CTA bus 54A (Skokie Courthouse).  Schedules and routes at transitchicago. com


        
        
    
    
        
        
        
        
        
        



We received the
following announcement from Sunsara Taylor's Chicago tour coordinator (sunsaratour@ yahoo.com).



The
Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago has acted unethically and now
a man is facing criminal charges stemming directly from their attempts to cover
up and justify their actions. Come to Skokie on Wednesday, Nov 18, at 1:30 pm to
demand criminal charges be dropped against the videographer arrested while
recording Sunsara Taylor's statement on Nov 1 at the Ethical Humanist Society
of Chicago.


 


When: Wednesday, November 18, 1:30 pm



Where:
Skokie Courthouse, Room 104


               5600
Old Orchard Road, Skokie, IL  


The
"Ethical" "Humanist" Society of Chicago (EHSC) is
shamefully pressing charges against the videographer who was arrested and
brutalized while documenting Sunsara Taylor's statement to the EHSC on November
1, before the start of their scheduled program. (Read news flash here.)


 


Sunsara
Taylor had gone to EHSC to make a statement explaining why it was wrong for
them to have disinvited her from her long-scheduled talk on "Morality
Without Gods" because some disagreed with her analysis and perspective,
and the broader chill in society to which this act contributed when a group such
as this suppressed rather than debated controversial opinions. She planned to
leave EHSC to give her talk "in exile" at the nearby home of an EHSC
member and invite all who wanted to hear it to join her. (See http://sunsara. blogspot. com/2009/ 11/sunsara- taylor-on- ethical-humanist .html.)
She had announced her intention to do this the day before at a well-attended
workshop she gave at EHSC on "The Liberation of Women and the Emancipation
of Humanity." (See her statement here). This same videographer had taped that workshop, without incident and working
with members of the Society to do so.


 


In
a move that defies any logic other than the continued cover-up and unethical
suppression of Sunsara's views, EHSC had the police arrest the videographer,
whose only action was recording her words in a "Michael Moore moment." If EHSC felt Sunsara
was causing some harm through her 2-minute statement before the start of their
program, why did they not ask her to stop? Why did they instead arrest
the videographer? 


 


That
the EHSC is willing to trample on the future, health and freedom of a man
simply to justify and cover-up their dis-invitation of Sunsara Taylor is itself
even more profoundly immoral and unethical -- and it must be stopped. 


 


As
Sunsara put it in her statement, "Today, progressive and radical thinkers
across the country are routinely dis-invited, their speech is routinely
suppressed, they are pressured to self-censor, they are fired or denied tenure,
and the discourse of this society is routinely kept within 'safe' limits that
do not challenge a bloody status quo. To go along with this, and contribute to
this, is to do great harm. Indeed, the ideas that are allowed to circulate in
society and the ideas that are suppressed, have everything to do with whether
the crimes of this world will be allowed to continue or whether these will be
called out, resisted and stopped. I ask that each of you reading this now add
your voice against this act of suppression. ... Write and call the EHSC and Skokie police department to
demand that charges be dropped against my videographer. " 


 




Come to the Skokie courthouse Wed. Nov. 18 to show
your support and demand all charges against the videographer be dropped. 
Write
to EHSC at office at ethicalhuman .org
to demand they drop the charges.Please
contribute whatever you can to the costs of his legal defense by sending a
check, earmarked "videographer defense," to Frankel and Cohen, 77 W. Washington, Suite 1720, Chicago, IL 60602.


 


For
more information see "Sunsara Taylor on the 'Ethical' Humanist Society of
Chicago, or...Why I was Dis-Invited, Why I Did Not Just Shut Up And Go Away,
and Why It Still Matters" and eyewitness statements at sunsara.blogspot. com.


        
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