"The world has changed dramatically in the last year. As a nation, the United States has been forced to re-examine our moral and constitutional obligation in regaurd to prisoners, national security and war.

Where have we failed, where have we succeeded and why? Tonight experts from the field discuss Human Rights from both a world and local perspective. Bring your questions, opinions and voice.

Tom Geoghegan is a lawer who has been involved in nearly all the major battles for worker's rights in the mid-west in the last 20 years. A graduate of Harvard, Geoghegan regularly contributes to the New York Times, The Nation and other periodicals. In his new book, In America's Court (The New Press, 2002), he explores facets of criminal justice and the failed promise of American leagal rights. He argues that civil and criminal law is really about human rights law, dependant upon a morality not founded on constitutional law and precedent. He is also the author of Which Side Are You On? and The Secret Life of Citizens (Plume, 1992)

Nelson Perry, author of Black Fire: The Making of A Revolutionary (New Press, 1995), has been involved in the labor and revolutionary movement since World War II. Black Fire chronicles his experiances before and during the war years, when he was confronted with a segregated army and fighting for democracy for an America that refused to honor the rights of African Americans. His new book, The Future is Up To Us (Speakers for a new America Books, 2002), looks at the history of the battles for freedom in America. Written to respond to many people he talked to after Black Fire was published, Peery proposes that America and the world stand on the threshold of new possibilities as well as dangers. This series is made possible in part through a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council.