Sunday marks the 75th birthday of Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century and the most cited living person, according to The New York Times. To celebrate, the Collective Information Alternative, an independent local human rights organization, is hosting a birthday party for Chomsky at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in 128 Sackett. There will be refreshments and the screening of a lecture Chomsky gave Tuesday night.

Doug Morris (graduate-language and literacy education), co-founder and co-coordinator of the information organization, said Chomsky has had a "serious impact" on raising the consciousness of people over the last 40 years.

"Chomsky revolutionized the way people think about mind and power," Morris said.

The author has written dozens of books in the past on subjects ranging from linguistics to terrorism to the human brain. The title of his Tuesday night talk was "Corporate Attacks on Democracy."

Sociology professor Sam Richards said Chomsky's message is an important one.

"There are few people that have the stature of Chomsky and he's saying things that few people are saying," Richards said. "People think he's overly critical of the U.S., but he's an equal opportunity critic. He critiques abuses of power wherever he sees it."

Sunday's event is the culmination of an busy semester for the information organization, which has included both activism and the Human Rights Film Series. The series hosted screening and discussion sessions once every couple of weeks this semester in the community room of the Municipal Building, 234 S. Allen Street. The last film, Bombies, an exposé of the secret U.S. cluster-bombing campaign in Laos, aired last night.

Sacha Brown (senior-English), co-coordinator of the organization, pointed out that the United States used these same cluster bombs in recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. troops in Iraq are susceptible to the dangers of leftover cluster bombs.

Both Brown and Richards said most students don't know enough about international issues such as this one. Brown attributed this to a depoliticized American culture.

"The mainstream media won't cover this," Brown said, "which is why you need a film series."

Morris echoed this, saying that what passes for the "left" and "right" in the United States is perceived in other nations of the world as the "right" and "far right."

"They call it polarization, but it's the same pole," he said. "Elsewhere, you have 15 poles."

The film series began a little over a year ago when the buildup to the war in Iraq was in its early stages. Morris said there were three factors why he and two fellow students began doing the film series: the need for public space for political projects, the recognition that the local community is highly depoliticized, and the issue with Iraq.

Attendance at the films has grown steadily since the series began, to the point where Brown and Morris now say they might max out the community room with the regular crowds of 70 or 80 people.

"Pretty much everyone that comes to one film keeps coming," Brown said.

The film series will continue into the spring and summer semesters and beyond, Morris said.

The Collective Information Alternative is busy doing many other things, including letter-writing campaigns. Richards said he will try to attend the screening because he needs "a dose of Chomsky" every few months or so.

Morris said the importance of attending this and similar events is that learning about the world's harsh realities is "empowering."

"There is an enormous amount of human suffering in the world," he said. "We, as people of the United States, have a responsibility to do something to ameliorate that suffering ... It's a simple choice: You can do nothing and be ensured that things will get worse or do something and open up the possibility that things will get better."