September 2004 Home   Newsletters

October 2004

November 2004

President's Message (Jackie Parnell)
December Meeting Features Proposal to Address Agricultural Lands (Jackie Parnell)
Volunteer for Election
Discussion Group Meets Oct. 21 (Evangeline Funk)
Parlor Game for Civil Liberties (Dorothy Cornell)
Constitutional Amendments Debated (Arlene Ellis)
Phone Company Takeover Bears Watching (Pearl Johnson)
Welcome New Members
Conference on Judicial Independence
View Sovereignty Tapes
Debate History Tapes Available
City Planner at Planning & Zoning Meeting Oct. 26

Parlor Game For Civil Liberties

The National League of Women Voters has started what 1 call a parlor game for civil liberties named Liberty Circles. I first heard about it from Susan Fields, Civil Liberties Specialist at the Pennsylvania League It is explained (not briefly) at www.lwv.org/join/justsociety/civil_circles.html.

Susan Fields wrote on September 14th on the LWV Liberty Listserve that two members of her Civil Liberties Committee held some exercises of the Liberty Circles. They wanted other members of the committee to feel comfortable taking the Circles to others and get discussions going in the community about the difficulties we now face.

They discussed what would be suitable in case of invasion and did two other case studies. Committee members found the exercise very helpful and are contacting others such as local schools to hold future Liberty Circles discussion groups. Ms. Fields decided to try out the discussions in some more informal settings and therefore while sitting around the table after two dinner parties, brought up Liberty Circles and the fact that the League was doing them.

Her guests wanted to know more. From there they just looked at the bullet points of Our Rights Under the Constitution which is in Handout A of the Liberties Circles Kit (go to above link and click on download PDF) and discussed one of the Illinois case studies.

What ensued was some very thoughtful discussions without partisan rancor even though they came from diverse political persuasions. That very diversity made the discussions even more thought provoking!

The bottom line: Ms. Fields found the Liberty Circles are very useful to get conversations on these subjects going in a positive way in both formal and informal discussion settings.

Dorothy Cornell

September 2004 Home   Newsletters November 2004