I've just about had it!!!
I think it's about high time we just hang a great big sign on The Statue Liberty, or perhaps one on our Nation's Capital Building, or perhaps on the Washington Monument, or perhaps all three.
Yeah! We hang a great big sign on all three that says . . . . . . .
OUT TO LUNCH!!!
I mean, like, seriously!!!
Excuse me, but did I just get off the wrong train in the wrong town, or what???
What planet is this???
What year is this???
Could somebody please give me a clue? Because right now, I really don't know!!!
I mean, this is suppose to be the USA, on Planet Earth, and this is suppose to be the year 2011, but now, I'm not so sure anymore.
OK, here is the situation as described in the following NEWS article at:
http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/ ... us-or.html
I hope you're all sitting down before you read this, and it's probably best if you strap yourself down in your seat, because you might fall off your seat, topple to the floor, hit your head on your computer desk, and seriously injure yourself.
OK, are you all seated, and strapped securely in place?
GOOD! Now it's safe to read the following article. Make sure you also have a barf bag handy.
HERE IT IS!!!
DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!!
OK, here is the letter that was sent to Rowland and Mayor Jamie Tillery.Alabama Townâ??s â??Jesus Or Jailâ?? Policy Violates
The Constitution, Americans United Says
September 26, 2011
Officials in Bay Minette, Ala., have crossed a constitutional line by creating a program that allows low-level offenders to choose between fines and jail or going to church for a year, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Bay Minette May Not Force Offenders To
Choose Between Going To Jail Or Going
To Church, Says Church-State Watchdog
â??I have just two words for this ill-considered scheme: blatantly unconstitutional,â? said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. â??Government simply canâ??t put people in a position where their only choice is Jesus or jail.â?
Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland says 56 churches have agreed to take part in the program, dubbed â??Operation Restore Our Community.â? Rowland says the plan is legal because no one is forced to go to church â?? they can choose fines or incarceration instead.
Americans United says Bay Minette is offering no real choice at all and that the scheme will clearly have the effect of funneling people into houses of worship.
In a letter to Rowland and Mayor Jamie Tillery sent today, attorneys with Americans United urged the town to drop the plan.
â??Under well-established decisions, the City may not force individuals â?? even those convicted of crimes â?? to choose between religion and jail,â? reads the letter.
The letter goes on to say, â??The Program would be unconstitutional even if participants could, as the City has asserted, attend the religious service of their choice. For one, any such choice is purely theoretical: only churches participate in the Program and so in practice defendants must attend Christian services. In any event, the Program would violate the Constitution even if other religions did participate because the First Amendment also requires the government to remain neutral between religion and non-religion.â?
The letter requests a response within 14 days.
Americans Unitedâ??s letter was drafted by Gregory M. Lipper, AU litigation counsel, and AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan.
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
It's a .pdf document, and you need Adobe Reader in order to read this document, so for those who don't have Adobe Reader, I have provided a copy below.
And here is a link to another article in The Washington Post National.By Email and U.S. Mail
Jamie Tillery, Mayor
Michael Rowland, Chief of Police
City of Bay Minette
P.O. Box 1208
Bay Minette, AL 36507
jtillery@ci.bay-minette.al.us
mrowland@ci.bay-minette.al.us
Re: Operation Restore Our Community
Dear Mayor Tillery and Chief Rowland:
We understand that this week the City of Bay Minette intends to begin Operation Restore Our Community (the Program), which would enable misdemeanor offenders to avoid jail and fines if, and only if, they attend church services for a year. As currently designed, the Program violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: the Program coerces criminal defendants into attending religious services, and it endorses religion as the preferred method of rehabilitation. We urge the City to modify the Program and offer defendants one or more non-religious alternatives.
Under well-established decisions, the City may not force individuals, even those convicted of crimes, to choose between religion and jail. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Constitution guarantees that government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise. Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 587 (1992). As a result, courts have repeatedly prohibited the government from requiring defendants to participate in religious programs to avoid or shorten incarceration. See, e.g., Inouye v. Kemna, 504 F.3d 705, 713â??14 (9th Cir. 2007) (invalidating program that conditioned parole eligibility on participation in religious drug-treatment program); Kerr v. Farrey, 95 F.3d 472, 473 (7th Cir. 1996) (same); Warner v. Orange County Depâ??t of Probation, 115 F.3d 1068, 1075â??76 (2d Cir. 1997) (invalidating program that required attendance at religious alcohol-abuse meetings as condition of probation), judgment reinstated, 173 F.3d 120 (2d Cir. 1999). Indeed, it has been clear for decades that no person can be punished . . . for church attendance or non-attendance. Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 15â??16 (1947).
The Program would be unconstitutional even if participants could, as the City has asserted, attend the religious service of their choice. For one, any such choice is purely theoretical: only churches participate in the Program, and so in practice defendants must attend Christian services.
See Sarah Anne Hughes, Alabama Townâ??s Offenders Can Choose Between Jail and Church,
Wash. Post Blog (Sept. 26, 2011, 9:47 AM)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html
In any event, the Program would violate the Constitution even if other religions did participate, because the First Amendment also requires the government to remain neutral between religion and non-religion: The principle at the heart of the Establishment Clause [is] that government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion. Bd. of Educ. v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687, 703 (1994). Like other programs enjoined even though they purported to embrace religious diversity, the Program â??conveys the unmistakable message that religion is favored, preferred, and even promoted, over other beliefs. Doe v. Beaumont Indpâ??t Sch. Dist., 173 F.3d 274, 291 (5th Cir. 1999). This it may not do.
* * *
Because the Program violates the Establishment Clause, we urge the City to offer one or more secular alternatives for defendants to obtain the same benefitâ??relief from criminal punishment, as those who attend religious services. Because of the serious nature of this matter, please inform us of your plans within fourteen days. If you have any questions, please contact Natalie Shapero at (202) 466-3234 or shapero@au.org.
Sincerely,
Ayesha N. Khan, Legal Director
Gregory M. Lipper, Litigation Counsel
cc:
Councilman Danleigh Corbett (dcorbett@ci.bay-minette.al.us)
Councilman Mike Phillips (mtphillips@ci.bay-minette.al.us)
Councilman John W. Biggs (jbiggs@ci.bay-minette.al.us)
Councilman Melvin Bradley (mebradley@ci.bay-minette.al.us)
Councilman Chris Norman (cnorman@ci.bay-minette.al.us)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html
Yeah! It just keep on getting better! Doesn't it?
OK, this is so fucking retarded!!!
Anchored by Melissa Bell
Posted at 09:47 AM ET, 09/26/2011
Alabama townâ??s offenders can chose between
jail and church
By Sarah Anne Hughes
Spend time in jail or with Jesus.
These are the options that one Alabama town is giving its non-violent offenders.
A jail cell. (STAFF - REUTERS)
The program is called Operation Restore Our Community, WKRG reports. Bay Minette citizens charged with a misdemeanor can choose spending a yearâ??s worth of Sundays in a local church rather than paying a fine and sitting in the clink.
The stark choice has civil libertarians asking whether the initiative could be seen as government-coerced religion, which is forbidden under American law.
Town police chief Mike Rowland said the program is primarily a cost-saving measure. He said the town spends $75 per day on an inmate.
But thereâ??s another plus, according to Rowland. He told the Alabama Press-Register: â??It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people.â?
One of the 56 participating pastors, Robert Gates, put that feeling into more biblical terms, telling WKRG, â??You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and Iâ??ll show you a person who wonâ??t be a problem to society.â?
No mosques or synagogues are participating in the program because they do not exist in the area, according to the Press-Register.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the program â??blatantly unconstitutional.â?
â??It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government canâ??t force participation in religious activity,â? Oliva Turner, the ACLU of Alabamaâ??s executive director, told the Press-Register.
Rowland responded by saying that offenders are not forced to chose church. Turner disagrees: â??When the alternative to going to church is going to jail, the so-called 'choice' available to offenders is no choice at all.â?
As I had mentioned, so many times before in these forum topics (until some of you are probably sick of hearing about it again and again) when I was a kid in the 4th grade living up in Minnesota, I got suspended from school because I failed to climb a stupid rope in the gymnasium.
I was unable to climb the rope due to my left knee being crippled up as a result of a car accident when I was about 4 years old.
No, never mind that I was passing all my other academics subjects, such as science, math, history, etc. etc. No, that made no difference at all. PE, sports, and climbing a rope was far more important, so I got suspended.
The PE coach dragged me to the principal's office, where I was told that I was going to be suspended from school. I felt that was wrong, because I was passing my academic classroom subjects, and that I didn't deserve to be suspended just because I couldn't climb the rope, due to my crippled up left knee.
The principle then gave me two choices.
Oh WOW! I got to choose! How nice!
1.) Suspension from school and go home to my parents.
2.) Or, I would get locked up in the closet overnight, and then, having the authorities take me away the following morning to the detention facility in Red Wing.
So, I chose suspension and being sent home to my mother.
I did not deserve to be locked up somewhere, to be treated like a criminal, just because I had a physical handicap.
Well, at least, back in the 1960s, when America was still a Constitutional Democracy, and not yet a Theocracy, like it's becoming now, at least I wasn't forced into mandatory church attendance.
But now, in the 21st century, if I were a kid living today in Bay Minette Alabama, I would probably be given the choice between being locked up in the detention facility, or mandatory church attendance for so many months.
Yeah! I would not be allowed to go to school to learn science and math.
No, I would be required to go to church and learn fairy tales all about (Yeah! Here we go again!) a man made from a lump of dirt, a woman made from his rib, how they were placed in a magical garden with a magical tree bearing magical fruit they weren't suppose to eat, and how they were tempted into doing so by a talking snake with legs!
And . . . . . if I had refused to believe that nonsensical retarded crap from the BUY-BULL, I probably would have gotten my face slapped by my Sunday school teachers, and then, sent off the detention facility anyway, to possibly get beaten and raped when I was only 10 years old, instead of having that happen many years later when I was 17 years old living in New Mexico.
So, either way, I would have been predestined to get fucked! Literally fucked!
I'm just glad, that back in the 1960s, America was not yet, that badly fucked up . . . . .
. . . . . yet!!!
No, that would come much later, like, now . . . . . in the 21st century!
I mean, this is the 21st century now . . . . . isn't it???
I'm really not so sure anymore!
Hey! What happened to the 21st century?
You know, like, all the things I believed, when I was a kid, that was suppose to happen in the 21st century, you know, like, we would have a colony of people living on the moon, and people would be going to Mars, and all kinds of really cool stuff like that!
What happened to all that???
I know!
The Republicans have decided that it's time for Democracy came to an end here in America, and eventually, we're going to be living under a brand new Theocracy!
Now, isn't that special!!!
Yeah, and there will be mandatory church attendance for all through out the cities of America, just like it was back in the 1600s when all those low-life scum-bag Pilgrims, those Puritan rat-bastards, who murdered and wiped out many Native American tribes.
In many Colonial villages, church attendance was mandatory, and the usher had a long wooden pole with a feather on one end, and a metal ball on the other end, and if you felt kind of sleepy during those many long boring church sermons and started dozing off, the usher would tickle your face with the feather to wake you up, and if you dozed off again, the usher would bonk you on the head with the metal ball to get your attention.
Now, isn't that special!!!
Yeah! That's what America will be like again, as it once was in the 1600s, in another 10 years or so!
Uh huh!
Now, isn't that special!!!
Oh gee!
Am I being cynical again?
I'm fat and sassy! I love to sing & dance & stomp my feet & really rock your world!
It's appalling that with all those statistics about how American students are falling behind in major academic categories (which leads to lessened job and technical skills) that garbage like this is still being proposed and debated, as if we're still living three centuries ago.