There are obviously urgent and ethical reasons for donating to the American Civil Liberties Union today. But in case you needed extra incentive, artists are here to sweeten the deal.
Emily Flake, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, posted a message on Instagram Sunday promising to mail a free drawing to anyone who emailed her a receipt after donating $50 or more to the ACLU.
She attributed the idea to comic artist Sarah Glidden, whose graphic novel Rolling Blackouts puts the refugee crisis in visceral and comprehensible terms.
Glidden, in turn, thanked artist Cathy G. Johnson for the idea. In 2016, Johnson created fundraising drawings in support of the Legal Support Fund in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of Michael Brown.
This weekend, Johnson tweeted out support for Glidden and all artists using their gifts to fight President Trump’s assault on American values and human rights. Other artists quickly followed suit, demonstrating the ways creative skills can contribute to political opposition and activism.
Since President Trump signed his anti-immigrant executive order on Friday, banning refugees from Syria and temporarily blocking travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union has collected over $24 million in online donations.
The ACLU was victorious in fighting the deportations of individuals trapped in airports around the country who were in transit when the order went into effect. Federal judges in New York, Virginia, Seattle and Boston ruled to block aspects of Trump’s ban, protecting individuals with valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, or who are otherwise legally authorized to enter the United States.
“This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,” said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who was in court Saturday arguing the case, in a statement.
Although many of the artists’ offers only lasted through the weekend, your donation is more crucial now than ever. Learn other ways to fight the #MuslimBan here.
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