L.A. Times Article on Bakersfield, Sullivan, and "In God We Trust"

LA Brights and camp followers - a message from Fearless Leader Frish:

 

Stuart found an article we can react to a Bright fashion (thanks Stu, yes the activity we have identified to fulfill our mission is writing letters to editors!).  (On a very tangential note, it suggests to me that we ought to concentrate on local media outlets for our letters/action...let's talk about that at our next meeting (John, thanks)!) 

 

Each of us is perfectly capable of writing in reaction to the article, or any other you happen to notice.  No one in this org will tell you (before hand) what to say or not!  (We may have discussions and construtive critiqueing later, but hey, that's how we get better!)

 

I am certainly available via phone or email should you care for consultation.  I have a fairly good record of getting letters published considering how few I've written (I've written about 10 to the LA Times in the last 4 years and 3 have been published so far...)

 

I responded to the author, and to letters@latimes.com.  I didn't mention Brights or LA Brights or atheists, but did use the "non-religious" (a rather neutral term I think!)  Probably increases the publishing chances, but I was published within the last 90 days I think, so they won't take mine anyway.

 

Here are other topics I didn't cover that are possible letter themes:

Idolatry - isn't worshipping in public and display of this type of thing idol worship?  Thought that went out with the Old Testament.

 

Is it simply idle worship, since the faithful seem to need reminding wherever they go?

 

"In God we trust" is simply a strange sign to display in any case.  What does it really mean?  If it is meaning free, as I suspect, then why display it?

 

Remain positive in your ultimate presentation, our mission remains to promote the naturalistic worldview.

 

Write a letter and don't send it...that's a great first step!

 

So, there is a lot to read, and speed is always of the essence, so respond if you wish to, but do it soon!

 

Thanks!

 

Also, I'm very serious about continuous improvement.  If you see something that I wrote to the LA Times that could be improved, let's talk!

 

Finally, if you find something that LA Brights ought to respond to, please share!

 

My letter follows, then the article that spawned my spew! 

-----------------------------------------------

Subject: mention the article you are writing to them about...

 

"'In God We Trust' is the perfect expression of what it takes to be a good American," she says, "because from my perspective as a believer, patriotism means love of God and love of country."

Dear Editor and Steve:
 
The essence of being American is TOLERANCE, therefore recognition that the "other" is also an American...and not excluded or included by some religious or jingoistic yardstick, or any other criteria.
 
Many patriotic and moral Americans believe that protecting the rights of minorities, in this case the non-religious amongst us, is more important than an expression of religion within the public commons.
 
"In God we trust" is an inappropriate expression by government of spirituality/religion. It should be removed from our public vocabulary, in the pledge, architecturally, on currency, or wherever it occurs.

Frish
(full name and address and phone number follows)
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stuart

Did you say that the LA Brights were looking for letter-writing opportunities?

-Stuart

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-trust28oct28,1,5195753.story

From the Los Angeles Times

She wants a higher power at City Hall

Five years after getting Bakersfield to place 'In God We Trust' in its council chambers, activist takes her motto campaign national.

By Steve Chawkins
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 28, 2007

BAKERSFIELD -- Next time you see God in City Hall, you might have Jacquie Sullivan to thank -- or blame, depending on your point of view.

Five years ago, the Bakersfield City Council member lobbied hard to get "In God We Trust" displayed over the city's seal in the council's meeting room.

In the years since, she has persuaded 25 other California cities, from Kerman to Compton, to do the same, sometimes over strenuous protests from residents who see the mounting of the motto as a backdoor effort to foist a religious agenda on local governments.

At 67, Sullivan is undaunted by people she describes as "wanting to remove God from everything." Through her nonprofit, In God We Trust -- America, she aims to have the phrase prominently featured in all 478 of California's city halls and every other city hall in America.

That's just the beginning.

Not long ago, Sullivan suggested to an evangelical pastor named Chad Vegas that posters saying "In God We Trust" be placed in every classroom in the sprawling Kern County High School District. Vegas, a member of the district board, agreed -- opening a contentious debate that is to be settled by the board Nov. 5.

Board President Bob Hampton, a former teacher in the district, said he'll vote against the posters because they reflect a "spiritual agenda."

"The spiritual side of students belongs at home and at church, not in the educational system," said Hampton, who now runs a garbage disposal company.

But some Bakersfield residents see no harm in a tribute to God on classroom walls.

"Most kids in Bakersfield already have that seed planted, but for the others, it couldn't hurt," said 23-year-old Malia Casarez as she headed toward her shift at a haircutting salon. "My daughter is just 9 months old and I'm already scared of sending her to school, with all the things you hear about."

In a family room dotted with figurines of angels and flag-draped eagles, the diminutive, genteel Sullivan says she's always surprised by the hostility over a phrase that Congress chose as the nation's motto in 1956. To arguments that it was a product of the McCarthy-era "Red scare," she replies that it was a comfort for a troubled country then and should, more than ever, be one now.

When Sullivan learned that the new $1 presidential coin has "In God We Trust" inscribed on its rim instead of its face, she was shocked and fired off an op-ed piece to the Bakersfield Californian.

"That just doesn't reflect the will of the people," she said in an interview. "I'm amazed that this could have happened, especially on the president's watch."

Though her nonprofit's board includes well-known Republican political consultant Mark Abernathy and local Christian broadcaster Dan Schaffer, Sullivan casts her effort as neither political nor religious: " 'In God We Trust' is the perfect expression of what it takes to be a good American," she says, "because from my perspective as a believer, patriotism means love of God and love of country."

Vegas agrees completely. The 34-year-old minister said the classroom posters would "send a huge message to students: We'd tell them the schools in this district are not afraid of the word 'God' or the concept of God, and that they don't have to be either."

Shortly after he became a board member last year, Vegas succeeded in renaming the district's winter and spring breaks as Christmas recess and Easter recess. Hampton cast the only dissenting vote.

Vegas said he has received overwhelmingly positive reaction to his current proposal. In a radio interview, he described opponents, who include a couple of fellow board members and the local newspaper's editorial board, as "a group of liberal secular atheists who hate God, who are not patriotic."

He has since backed away from that description, but contends that the newspaper, which ran an editorial headlined "In Chad We Doubt," and other elements of Bakersfield's "aristocracy" do not understand the area's conservatism.

"A lot of people move here because it's a more conservative, family-oriented, faith-oriented place, and the aristocracy doesn't get it," he said.

If Vegas' proposal passes, Sullivan's organization will buy the posters from the American Family Assn., an influential conservative group that offers a step-by-step online guide to "getting the National Motto of the United States of America in local public school classrooms."

Vegas and Sullivan say that, beyond purchasing posters, they have no connection with the group.

In many city halls, the "In God We Trust" effort has proceeded smoothly. Some have mounted the motto on plaques, while others have placed the words over the council dais or even made the phrase a part of their city seal.

In a promotional packet sent to every city clerk in California, Sullivan includes a letter from attorney Brad Dacus of the conservative Pacific Justice Institute, offering free legal counsel in the unlikely event of a lawsuit.

No lawsuit has been filed. Numerous courts have held that "In God We Trust," a fixture on U.S. currency and in many public buildings, carries no unconstitutional religious baggage. A number of states have allowed or required its posting in schools.

In Oklahoma, Americans United for Separation of Church and State distributed "E Pluribus Unum" posters rather than "bring another acrimonious lawsuit into the courts that may not have much chance of winning," said spokesman Rob Boston.

In most of what Sullivan calls her "Yes! Cities," the decision was made swiftly -- although in Oceanside, it was an on-again, off-again campaign that took two years.

More typical was Hawthorne, where City Council member Ginny Lambert said there wasn't a single objection from the council or the community on spending donated funds for an "In God We Trust" plaque.

"I believe all of us have a god except those who may be atheists, so it shouldn't offend anyone," she said.

Sullivan drove down to Hawthorne, which calls itself the home of the Beach Boys, for the unveiling.

"She paved the way for all of us," Lambert said.

A Bakersfield native, Sullivan followed an unusual path into politics.

A divorced mother of four, she was forced to rely on welfare when she returned to Bakersfield after her marriage ended in the Lake Tahoe area. Over the years, she became a successful real estate broker and gained public attention for her activism after her 21-year-old daughter, Joyce, died of AIDS in 1993.

Even now, she visits student groups to show a moving 12-minute video on her daughter's struggle and urge young people to abstain from premarital sex.

"At the end of the presentation, I tell them to get themselves checked out if they think they've done some risky behavior," she said. "And if it turns out they're not infected, I tell them to get down on their knees and thank God."

As a council member, Sullivan is known for expressing consistently conservative views in sometimes rambling presentations.

Sue Benham, the lone council member to vote against "In God We Trust" in 2002, said Sullivan "truly believes in what she's doing" -- although, in Benham's view, the motto is "inappropriate for City Hall and even more so in the classroom. It's a forced expression of faith, not patriotism."

Sullivan has heard that before and is unfazed. There are more city halls out there to adorn with the motto, she said.

When asked whether she'd tried such liberal hotbeds as Berkeley or Santa Cruz, she paused.

"Well . . . " she said. "You're joking, right?"

steve.chawkins@latimes.com

Here is what we are up against!

READ IT AND WEEP.  Or giggle uncontrollably.  Just keep breathing evenly as you consume the following screed...

 

Malthus' Minions Ibd Fri Oct 26, 6:53 PM ET

Environment: Not content with its dubious fight over global warming, the United Nations now says humanity itself is causing irreversible environmental damage. Haven't we heard this kind of thing before?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20071026/bs_ibd_ibd/20071026issues;_ylt=AuIFa_1mYmSmdf.7o2Kf.c9pl88F

Indeed, we have. In 1798, a country parson named Thomas Malthus published a book in which he calculated that human populations were growing faster than the world's ability to feed them. It wouldn't be long, he reasoned, before the world would be afflicted with " sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague." In short: mass death.

He was, of course, spectacularly wrong.

True, population did increase, geometrically even. But it didn't lead to misery. Far from it. Today, we are wealthier, healthier, better-housed, better educated than ever -- thanks not to U.N. bureaucrats, but to our ability as free men and women to think clearly about problems, and solve them.

Yet, according to the U.N.'s new "Geo-4 Report," our environmental problems, a result of unchecked population growth and wealth, are so extensive that, as the London Times put it, "they must be treated as a top priority if they are to be solved."

Check your wallets and your freedom at the door. For this is the old line used by environmental extremists of all types: Things are so bad we can no longer put off what must be done. Of course, you'll have to give up some income and freedom -- and maybe even your right to bear children -- but, hey, the environment's at stake.

Excuse us, but this seems like another attempt to foist centralized, global control over the prosperous, dynamic and fast-growing economies of the world -- an attempt to shake us down and radically alter Western lifestyles, to get us out of our deluxe cars and designer clothes and onto bicycles and into bearskins.

It's a bad idea that just won't go away. In the 1960s, biology professor Paul Ehrlich revived Malthus with his best-selling "The Population Bomb." "In the 1970s," he warned, "the world will undergo famines -- hundreds of million of people are going to starve." His solution: Immediate population control, mandated by law.

Ehrlich was followed by the Club of Rome's "Limits To Growth," and by President Carter's equally alarmist "Global 2000" report. They, too, were utterly wrong. Yet, they influenced a whole generation of green activists who came to think of humanity as a disease -- a "cancer," in Ehrlich's word -- that had to be cut out.

Unfortunately for them, far from despoiling the world and leading lives that are "nasty, brutish and short," we're thriving. As the late economist Julian Simon noted, people are the ultimate resource. More people means more brains -- more problem-solvers for humanity's ills. Population isn't a curse; it's an opportunity.

This is why the Malthusian view of the world is so wrong. And why Simon and his followers are right to say not only is the world not getting worse, but by virtually any measure it's getting better.

In "The Improving State of the World," for instance, scientist Indur Goklany notes that worldwide life expectancies have more than doubled -- from 31 years to 67 -- in just the past century. In poor countries, the share suffering from chronic hunger plunged from 37% in 1970 to 17% in 2001, even as population soared 83%.

Even the definition of "poor" has changed, because average annual incomes in poor countries have more than tripled in real terms since 1950. Just since 1981, the share of the world's population living in poverty has been halved, from 40% to 20%.

Yes, we have social and environmental problems. But the alarmists would have us don straitjackets and then force-feed us solutions under the rubric of "sustainable growth" -- a kind of friendly fascism that leads to greater poverty and loss of liberty.

We prefer what's worked before: free markets, free minds and free people, working democratically under the rule of law.

--

Yes, let's keep doing what we've done, because we are rich and have no conception of what misery is actually created in the world due to our insanely unsustainable economy (don't ask about tin miners), as we lie to ourselves with statistics (since many people are poor and hungry, perhaps more than ever before!) and what we measure as progress and success (like a bigger house or car or meat on the table every night) is actually a siren call that draws us ever toward the rocks of disaster, and we remain especially and intentionally ignorant about what will happen in the not distant future, because of the profligate population, wanton waste, and myopic mindset of people like the author, who happen to also control the very causes of the catastrophe, and every fibre of their being and their huge (and GROWING) financial clout will deny any slow down or change in course, since their ox will be gored.  Al Gored.

 

The author doesn't understand the lesson of the casino.  He only plays No Limit Poker.  The table has been busted except one other player.  The cards are dealt.  Everything was going great.  He won every bet he made.  Then, his 4 aces puts his fortune "all-in"... only to get beat by Mother Nature's Straight Flush (flushing him right out of the biosphere!)

 

I'll leave it to others to dissect the insanity above, each sentence of which I could discuss and dispute but I'll take one swing at the fact that our liberties are being threatened (and not by environmentalists).

 

MY FAVORITE LINE:  "Of course, you'll have to give up ... your right to bear children -- hey, the environment's at stake.

(IF IT WERE ONLY SO!)

Cheers,

Frish