Drowning in Junk Mail – 3 Civil Rights Groups

Days like today are why I write this blog. Sometimes it writes itself.

I got these 3 mail pieces yesterday. They are all about the same thing: Your civil rights. But they all have very different agendas, and very different ways of presenting themselves.

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Let’s start with the flashiest of the 3. Full color envelope with Obama and a “no bible” symbol and the letters “ACLU” floating around. It screams “What’s behind the UNPRECEDENTED ATTACKS on YOUR religious freedom… And what YOU can do about it!” 

This is from Alliance Defending Freedom. It also came with mailing labels (I don’t like to photograph them because it will just be a blurry mess). The letter talks about how the ACLU is “undermine[ing] America’s Judeo-Christian foundation” and “The Obama Administration is building on the destructive legacy of the ACLU and taking it even further” the letter goes on like that for 4 pages.

• Wiki page
• Source Watch page
• Charity Navigator page, 3 stars, 23% of budget spent on fundraising.

Opt-out here.

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Next we have a more serious envelope with a “Notice of Firearm Restriction Compliance” and some quotes from USPS postal code. This is from the American Civil Rights Union. The 8 page letter talks about gun rights, and how they are the conservative ACLU.

They want me to urgently reply to this letter by sending back a “Declaration of Freedom” that says in part: “Let it be known. That we, the free Citizens of the United States of America, will no longer tolerate the assault on our Constitutional Rights that has become a state-by-state campaign by liberal, anti-Freedom, anti-gun zealots.”

• Wiki page
• Source Watch page
• Charity Navigator page, 0 stars, 72% of budget spent on fundraising.

Opt-out here info@theacru.org

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Now we come to a simple green envelope with nothing on it (except for my scribbling). I can’t make this stuff up people, it is from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The very group demonized by the other 2 mail pieces.

The only things in the envelope is a pre-paid postage return envelope and the membership renewal notice. It’s pitch? “From urging the President and Congress to act decisively on critical civil liberties priorities, to arguing vitally important cases before the Supreme Court, to helping people protect their personal freedom in communities all across America, the ACLU’s work is more essential than ever.” That is it. One paragraph, to tell me what they do.

• Wiki page
• Source Watch page
• Rational Wiki page
• Charity Navigator page, 3 stars, 9% of budget spent on fund raising.

Opt-out here membership@aclu.org

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I will try to opt-out of all them this week. I couldn’t care less about your cause. I just want the junk mail to stop.