ACLU's StandUp Teams Up with Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist Matt Bors (3/24/2008)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Bi-weekly Civil Discourse Uses Humor to Inspire a New Generation of
Activists
NEW YORK –Today, the American Civil Liberties
Union announced the launch of Civil Discourse, a bi-weekly comic strip created
for the ACLU by nationally syndicated cartoonist Matt Bors. Civil
Discourse is part of the ACLU’s StandUp campaign, an ongoing project that
educates younger audiences about today’s pressing civil liberties issues. The
strip can be seen online at www.aclu.org/StandUp
“Matt’s cartoons are often about civil liberties
violations and other injustices,” said Anthony Romero, ACLU executive director.
“We’re excited to have someone as original and talented as Matt help us inspire
the next generation of civil libertarians.”
The ACLU’s work with Matt began more than a year
ago, when the StandUp campaign enlisted him to create a short-run series of
print comics about civil liberties. The success of those led to the
creation of Civil Discourse, an entirely new series of comic strips that are
available exclusively on the StandUp website.
Subversive cartoons, in formats ranging from the
graphic novel to the online comic strip have exploded in popularity in the past
two decades, and comics have a long history of educating people about
injustice. In a time of unprecedented civil liberties violations, Civil
Discourse is an ideal way for the ACLU to communicate with younger audiences
about the issues that impact their lives.
“We've seen a lot of our civil liberties trampled
on over the last few years and the ACLU has been fighting back regardless of
which way the political wind blows. I'm proud to be working with them.” said
Bors. “With Civil Discourse, I want to make people laugh, but I also want
them to think about their how important their rights are.”
About Matt Bors www.mattbors.com: Matt Bors is a nationally
syndicated cartoonist with United Feature Syndicate who lives in Portland,
OR. His editorial cartoons appear in papers across the country including
The Village Voice, the Cleveland Free Times, and The Los Angeles Times.
He’s created comics for The Nation, CampusProgress.org, Free Inquiry and The
Oregonian.
About
StandUp www.aclu.org/standup:
StandUp is the
ACLU’s campaign for students and young people. Started in 2004, the
ongoing project seeks to educate, inspire and activate the next generation of
civil libertarians. About the ACLU www.aclu.org: The American Civil
Liberties Union is the nation’s number one defender of the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights and has played a major role in nearly every key civil liberties
battle of the last century. Whether you’re young, old, rich, poor,
straight, gay, black, white, male, female, pious or atheist—every person in this
country should have the same basic rights. Since 1920, the ACLU has been working
hard to make sure no one takes these rights away.
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