Feelin' free

There are a lot of people I admire, some I even consider heroes. Tonight, I added someone else to the list: Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union. I attended a speech she gave Wednesday night as keynote to the yearlong First Amendment Festival at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

The hour's drive with two friends was so worth it. Strossen impressed me with her breadth of knowledge, her articulate expression of the rationale behind the mission of the ACLU and her passion for explaining it all. The auditorium was not fully packed, but there appeared to be several hundred people -- a good mix of students, older members of the community and academics -- attending, listening and later asking questions.

Her speech not only gave the history of the First Amendment but outlined the importance of defending those rights. She listed example after example of cases where the ACLU had defended the rights in the First Amendment -- in some situations describing a behavior that was unpopular or unsavory. She also had been asked to concentrate on the religion freedoms, and she presented support for why the ACLU was necessary and listed its many accomplishments.

I was struck throughout her presentation at how she remained objective and principled. When her position is one of absolute defense of first freedoms, it is easily defensible. She did not hedge, she did not equivocate. Furthermore, she walked her talk. In a question-and-answer session after her speech, she responded to more than a dozen queries on a wide range of civil liberties topics: Internet filters, pornography, school newspapers, flag burning, same-sex marriage, copyright. She patiently listened to what were surely the same questions she gets asked at every speech, and she capable answered them all. In one case, she honestly could not understand the question from a young man who clearly was nervous and inarticulate, offering to respond to him by e-mail. Another young man posed a pointed series of questions about the ACLU's position on flag burning and appearing anti-military when those same military members are fighting to preserve American freedoms. It was here where she was most patient and tolerant of the free speech she so values. Additionally, her knowledge of the cases that affected public schools was especially impressive.

The fact that such a luminary in the field of civil liberties would speak on the CWU campus made me proud to be an alumnus. Central Washington desperately needs to have dialogue about civil liberties and foundation freedoms. The role of the academy in society is to make available speakers and experiences that force each of us to question and which provoke us to think. Nadine Strossen at CWU was just such a speaker and experience -- the perfect opening to what promises to be a year of phenomenal opportunities to the campus community.

Tonight, I am especially pleased to be a graduate of CWU and a member of the ACLU.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.