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Habeas Sightings: Nashville, TN

Gabe Rottman,
Legislative Counsel,
ACLU Washington Legislative Office
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June 10, 2007

A man named Stan sent us the following email from the country music capital of the world – Nashville:

The biggest part of our history here in Nashville is the music: country, jazz, gospel, you name it. If it wasn’t born here, you can be pretty sure it at least stopped and stayed for a spell.Now I hear this Habeas you’re looking for is a good-hearted, America-loving man (or a person, or a fella, anyhow you follow my meaning). So I bet it won’t surprise you any that this red-blooded green fella stopped his running just long enough to take in a little history at the Country Music Hall of Fame right here in Nashville.I’ve worked here for the last 15 years, helping to keep the place looking nice for all the folks who come through. This morning, I was polishing the cases in our new Ray Charles exhibit, when I saw your bitty green friend wandering the hallways. I don’t expect he was looking for anything in particular – just admiring the beauty of the place and soaking up some musicological history. Of course, I’m not supposed to just let people wander around like that – we don’t rightly open til 10:00 a.m.. But the little man just looked so worn down, like he’d been running all his life.This here is the place I go myself when I feel down. I figured who was I to keep someone as important as Habeas Corpus himself from doing the same? Don’t know if any of these messages get to him eventually, but you tell him to come back and see us any time.-- StanP.S. I even started a country song about him – with a bit about how “the laws we abide have a purpose” and “Mr. Gonzales the sourpuss,” but I’m still working on those rhymes. There are more half-written songs around here than there are screenplays out in Hollywood, and I don’t wanna just add to the pile!

Have you seen Habeas? Send your sightings to aclu@aclu.org.

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