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"ACLU-FL Elects New State Leadership: A Message from New Board President Jeanne Baker"
April 2003 Edition of the ACLU of Florida Newsletter
Dear members of the ACLU of Florida:
As the newly elected President of the ACLU of Florida, I feel a heavy burden. This state leads the nation in ways that should shame us all.
We harbor the largest number of persons in any state found to have been wrongfully condemned to the death penalty (23 exonerated in the past 25 years; how many still sit on death row who should have walked free? how many have been executed despite their innocence?). We are home to the largest number of persons in any state (approximately 500,000) who, because of prior convictions, have lost their right to vote and work in occupations requiring licenses (almost half of whom are African-American). We have a voting system notorious for bureaucratic problems that continue to disenfranchise countless persons, mostly minorities, and which led to the debacle of the 2000 presidential election that disgraced our state before the entire nation. We have the only law in the nation which denies lesbians and gays the right to adopt children, even if the prospective parents have been serving as legal guardians and even if the facts prove that the adoption would be in the child's best interest. Our legislature has enacted a "voucher" system, and our Governor is about to launch faith-based programs, using public funds in direct contravention of Florida's constitutional prohibition against state aid to religion. And on top of all of this, we in Florida, like the rest of America, are witnessing and experiencing one of the greatest retrenchments of personal civil liberties in our lifetime.
How can we, as an organization, hope to combat all of these wrongs? How can we, as an organization, stem the tide of government overreaching and intrusion? There is only one answer: the way we have always worked ? one lawsuit at a time, one public debate at a time, one legislative action at a time...one step at a time, shoulder to shoulder, relentlessly pushing the rock up the hill.
The greatness of the ACLU, proved time after time during the 83 years since our founding is that we do not shy away from difficult battles. Indeed, the more difficult the battle, the more we are energized as an organization to find ways to stand and fight for what we believe in.
As President of the ACLU of Florida, I do feel a heavy burden. But I am not alone. Not only do we have an excellent Executive Director and staff, but we have wonderful Board members serving on the state Board of Directors and on chapter boards throughout Florida. My goal as President is to increase chapter activity throughout the state so as to strengthen and extend the ACLU's presence in local communities everywhere in Florida. The more that chapters take root and flourish throughout Florida, the more the burden will be shared ? and the more we will keep that rock moving up the hill.
Sincerely,
Jeanne Baker
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A computer network administrator, criminal defense attorney and technology consultant are among the newly-elected members of the Executive Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida Board of Directors.
On February 22, the 50-member state board of directors held its annual elections at a meeting in Orlando, naming the following as new officers: President Jeanne Baker, an appellate-level criminal defense attorney in Miami, Vice President Rosemary Wilder, a Miami-based insurance defense attorney, Secretary Steve Phillippy, a Tampa-area technology consultant, Treasurer and National Board Representative Michael E. Pheneger, a former U.S. Army officer, Development Co-Chair Susan Watson, a computer network administrator for WUWF public radio and television in Pensacola, Development Co-Chair Benji Waxman, a criminal defense attorney in Miami, Immediate Past President Bill Boyd, a newspaper executive in Clearwater and Legal Chair Mike Masinter, a Nova Southeastern University law professor.
