I am a member of amnesty international in my school and I love being in it and the work that we do. the thing is, I get a lot of grief for being a part of this organization that seems to be hated by a lot of people. for one thing, in my neighborhood is a large jewish population so of course they are upset w./ amnesty's take on israel and the occupied territories. besides that though, everyone seems to hate amnesty and love to argue over whether what I'm doing is right. does anyone else feel this way? is anyone getting the same kind of responses that I have been getting?

I'm actually really surprised anyone responded to my question......the thing is, though I don't love everything about amnesty I don't know another way for me to get involved in this kind of work.....I really love activism and speaking out but (and I hate to sound like a defeatist) there doesn't seem to be a whole lot for teenagers out there......I'm not sure what other people are doing but this is the best I can come up w./ so far.

there used to be an amnesty group at my school, but they never did anything. it dissolved my freshman year, so i was never in it.

i've heard the good and the bad about a.i. from what i've heard, they do a lot of letter writing to get people out of jail. or at least that's what my school's group did. they've really moved out of the public eye lately.

i've never heard of anyone getting that same response. but keep on doing what you believe in.

It is a human rights organization that has been around for a little over 40 years.
They are of course helping out a lot in Iraq right now and have helped out in other countries all over the world.

The issue that some people have with them on their Isreal/Palistine stance is that they have never condemed the Palistinians for their actions against Isrealies choosing to focus only on the suffering inflicted BY the Isrealies.

Besides that, (I have never been part of the organization so this isnt from first hand experience) I have heard that it is rather disorganized on the international levels, that their money doesnt reach its destinations, and that they just plain dont get anything done.

trackie - its unfortunate that you are being harrased because of your membership. To answer your question, no, i have not heard of that type of response.

What is amnesty???