Michigan Bookseller Finds CRP Displays Draw Customers

All four locations of Schuler Books & Music mounted displays to encourage customers to participate in the campaign to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. Pictured above is the Okemos store display.

Lansing store display (above).

Alpine Avenue, Grand Rapids store display (above).

28th Street, Grand Rapids store display (above).

On Friday, September 9, all four locations of Schuler Books & Music mounted displays to encourage customers to participate in the campaign to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The stores in Grand Rapids, Walker, Lansing, and Okemos, Michigan, have set up displays that include Campaign for Reader Privacy petitions and fliers that offer additional sources for information on the Patriot Act.

"A lot of people have been taking a look at the display," said Schuler's Promotions Coordinator Jennifer Malinowski. "We have the [CRP] petitions out and have three or four sheets filled and the display just went up a few days ago. We'll leave out the petitions as long as possible and then mail them [to ABA]."

While all four displays are not identical, they all share similar components. In addition to the petitions to amend the Patriot Act, Schuler Books also created shirts and buttons, which are for sale. The shirts read, "Amend the Patriot Act, Schuler Books & Music" on the back and have one of three slogans on the front: "Got Due Process?"; "What you read may NOW be held against you"; and "It's time to make amends."

Schuler co-owner Cecile Fehsenfeld told BTW that the store was emphasizing that the bookstore was "not in favor of abolishing the Patriot Act," but rather "in favor of amending Section 215."

In the Lansing and Okemos locations, Schuler's is also spearheading a letter writing campaign encouraging customers to tell their representative to support efforts to amend the Patriot Act by providing complimentary postcards. These postcards offer a statement in support of efforts to amend the Patriot Act. If customers choose to sign them, Schuler Books and Music will foot the cost of mailing them to Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI).

In order for signatures to be counted prior to their presentation to members of Congress on September 29, ABA has asked bookstores to send all signed petitions to its headquarters in Tarrytown, New York, by September 20. Representatives of the four organizations sponsoring CRP -- ABA, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, and PEN American Center -- will travel to Washington, D.C. to present the signed petitions as part of Banned Books Week celebrations. Signed petitions should be sent to ABA, Restore Reader Privacy, Attn.: Oren Teicher, 828 S. Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591.