Some Editorials and Letters I've Written to Newspapers and Government Officials Etc.

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• A letter to Ellen Goodman
• A fax to Rep. Rush Holt
• "I'm not surprised; I'm infuriated!"
• 10,000 Bombs and a few lost Civil Liberties later�

A letter to Ellen Goodman dealing with Church and State

11:17 AM 2/17/01

Inre: "Dueling monologues on the issues of faith" by Ellen Goodman, an article which ran on page 13 of the Boston Globe on 2/15/2001. � Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

Ms. Goodman,

The dialogue between church and state are a failure from its infancy to the present. With a healthy dose of suspicion applied to both sides, one is left with complete separation of church and state as the only sane conclusion to the discourse between the two. We, as voters and Creative parents of both church and state, need to send them to their respective corners and make them stay there!

Thanks for listening. ~Steven Otkuna~

References:

1. "Sins of Our Fathers" BY DAVID NAPIER
   The Sins of the Fathers
   Newfoundland Wrestles With Legacy of Church School Abuse
   By DeNeen L. Brown
   Washington Post Foreign Service
   Sunday, October 15, 2000; Page A20
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3729-2000Oct13.html
2. Adams, David Wallace. EDUCATION FOR EXTINCTION: AMERICAN INDIANS AND THE BOARDING SCHOOL EXPERIENCE 1875-1928. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 1995.Recently released in paperback, Adams treats the history thoroughly, with respect and honesty, yet avoids the trap of over-sentimentalizing the assimilation story. Includes very good accounts of the personnel associated with the boarding schools of the period. Lays out the events that led to the final demise of Carlisle. This book is a good basic Indian Education primer with strong emphasis on Carlisle. Book available by special order from Oyate.
3. American Atheist
   http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/texas2.html
   PROBE OF ABUSE CHARGES AT "BIBLE DISCIPLINE" HOME LEADS TO BUSH, RAISES QUESTIONS OF FAITH-STATE PARTNERSHIP
   Web Posted: April 12, 2000

A Fax to Rep. Rush Holt on Gay Civil Liberties

Email: Rush Holt at [email protected]
~Fax Rush Holt at -2022256025
Friday, February 16, 2001 1:16:47

As your constituent, I urge you to help stop the inequality in U.S. immigration law by supporting and co-sponsoring the "Permanent Partner Immigration Act," in the next Congress. This bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the last Congress, would add the term "permanent partner" to sections of immigration law that provide immigration rights to legally married couples, allowing gay or lesbian citizens to sponsor their partners to become U.S. residents.

When will these insidious mouse-traps stop? When will the United States join the rest of the modern industrial global community? This is yet another example of the United States hiding its shameful head in the sands of the 19th century hour-glass. What will it take for the United States to rear its ugly, fanatical, and fundamental head out of the blinding sand and into the 21st century? My respectful representative, by supporting this legislation we will, at least, try to lift our heads out of the sand. And, with a little common decency to wash the sand out of our eyes, we will be able to see how much further the global community has traveled ahead of us. Our laws, thus far, have made a hypocrisy out of our so-called Family Values mind-set (as if, one's Family Values sweater size can be legislated to fit all); meanwhile, we are making a laughable kindling for more progressive minds to stoke and prod. I beg you to support this legislation with a head held high and lead us out of the sand.

Right now, the partners of heterosexual Americans can gain permanent resident status -- and eventually citizenship - through marriage. However, immigration laws don't even recognize same-sex couples. In fact, under no circumstances can a U.S. citizen use a committed relationship as a basis for sponsoring a partner of the same sex from a foreign country, no matter how long the couple has been together or how committed their relationship.

Under this legislation, same-sex binational couples would have to meet the same requirements as heterosexual couples to demonstrate that they are in an intimate, committed relationship, including providing proof of the relationship, affidavits from friends and family and evidence of financial support. Adding the category of "permanent partner" status to current U.S. immigration law would not depend on state and federal recognition of gay marriage.

I feel strongly that U.S. immigration policy should establish fair standards that apply equally to the permanent partners of all American citizens. Infact, I understand that the U.S. lags behind other democracies in extending fair treatment in immigration policies to gay couples. Thirteen other countries currently allow the gay partners of their citizens to become permanent residents: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The United States should extend the same fair treatment to persons coming from other countries to join their partners here.

It is clear that family unification is at the heart of U.S. immigration law. Approximately 75 percent of the 1 million immigrant visas issued each year go to family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. However, the INS's current definition of family excludes same-sex partners. This bill seeks to recognize the reality that a gay couple is a family.

Again, I urge you to help stop the inequality in U.S. immigration law by supporting permanent partner legislation. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this very important matter.

-end of fax-

I'm not surprised; I'm infuriated

This was written in response to an article by Jon Nelson �What the Founding Fathers Said about Religion� 12/13/01 4:55:34 PM) located on the FreeThoughtRadio�s News link:

I love the Thomas Paine quote, �When the church mythologists established their system, they collected all the writings they could find and managed them as they pleased. It is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us whether such of the writings as now appear under the name of the Old and New Testaments are in the same state in which those collectors say they found them, or whether they added, altered, abridged, or dressed them up.� The following is an example of how Religious zealots manipulate, lie, misquote, and toy with a History that does not fit their perspective. Given the historically poor track record of the Church, should this misquoting of our third President surprise anyone? I am, by no means surprised; I am infuriated. This syncretism of re-writing of American History must have every one of our deistic freethinking ancestors shaking their heads in absolute disgust. These 'mind-control' freaks, such as Pat Robertson and the like, not only want us to entrust them with our children by sending them to their miasmic and mythological brainwashing schools. They also want to tax each one of us to pay for their viral instructions through a religious voucher tax system or hold us in contempt in a court of law for failure to pay it. These are scary times indeed. The very essence of what the original intent of our Founding Fathers were and laid out in The Constitution are evaporating into a �will-of-the-wisp� dream of half-memory and half truths. Now, after the horrific event of Sept.11, we have every Tom, Dick, and Harry asking the US to get on its knees, pray and shout �God Bless America�. That�s when I draw the line and repeat Thomas Jefferson�s words, �Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against terror.� �I have horrible nightmares of a god-like Adonis figure standing adamantly like Michelangelo's statue of 'David' with President Ronald Reagan's fake rosy cheeked face poetically carved into it. With a fevering white-eyed marbled stare and a blinding right-wing halo hovering mysteriously above his head, sputtering absurdities like, "FREETHINKERS- Tear down this 'wall' of separation of church and state!"

Although Voltaire was not a Founding Father, he should have been. Voltaire said, "Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror."� Today, the checks and balances between church and state envision by the drafters of the Constitution are a skewed and trumped against the freethinker. Yes, I am infuriated!

This is from the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State website, please, read the full story there:

PAT ROBERTSON'S REGENT UNIVERSITY FLUNKS AMERICAN HISTORY

"National Magazine Ad For TV Preacher's Graduate School Recruits Donations With Bogus James Madison Quote"

TV preacher Pat Robertson's Regent University is soliciting support with a full-page ad in U.S. News & World Report that features a bogus quotation about the Ten Commandments supposedly uttered by James Madison.

The ad, which appears in the April 9 edition of the magazine, is centered around a large-type assertion at the top of the page attributed to Madison. "We have staked the whole of our political institutions," Madison is quoted as saying, "upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

The ad gives no source for the statement, and with good reason: It appears nowhere in the writings of Madison. Madison scholars debunked it years ago and even many Religious Right leaders have admitted that the quote can't be substantiated...

~Return to top of Page~

10,000 Bombs and a few lost Civil Liberties later�

I wrote this Op-ed to my local newspaper and posted it on the FreeThoughtRadio Website�s Forum Discussion Board.

An Opinion Thursday, December 06, 2001

I wrote this to a newspaper editorial 12/6/01. I would like to hear your comments, please. The power we are relinquishing is dangerous and beyond the scope of the basic Bill of Rights. With the prison roll calls shrinking, I cannot help but to think that the 'Anti-terrorist Act of 2001' was enacted to remedy the situation.

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�I just read the News today�oh, boy� (from a song by John Lennon) �that the US has dropped more than 10,000 bombs on Afghanistan. Enough already, at this pace, in couple more weeks, we could pay for four World Trade Centers to replace the two we lost. Maybe, George W. Bush needs some advisor to pass this tad-bit of wisdom from an Old Persian Proverb to his ear: �A drowning man is not troubled by rain�. Maybe, the twisted reasoning and pseudo-logic of this administration is to allow the Military to try to spend our way out of a recession. While George W. Bush may be too reluctant to declare victory in Afghanistan and move this nation beyond terrorist acts, he is forgetting all the warnings from our �Founding Fathers� about an over zealous executive that leads its citizens in constant war will bankrupt its civil society�s assets of freedom. Not that anyone in this administration comes across as being any great admirers of the Deistic Freethinking Founding Fathers, in the first place. Hence, with the passing of the Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, hard won civil liberties be damn, exemplifies the wisdom of yet another Old Turkish Proverb that states: �An Englishmen will burn his bed to catch a flea�.

For me, on Sept.11, the ugly Religious Hydra serpent rose from its nascent sea of uncertainty and struck fear into the hearts of civilized men. The Herculean quagmire confronting George W. Bush and the allied nations standing under the simplistic �us-or-them� umbrella forming, the �coalition against terrorism� is to sever the �Osuma Bin Laden� head from the sea serpent with the �sword of reason� without two more religious numb skulls taking its place. We can rationalize-to-death anybody and anything, but only �justice� will prevent the cancerous re-growth.

So, what will it be, Mr. President, a courageous act of justice or more bombings and wild goose chases of undefined phantomlike shadow terrorist at home and around the globe? Am I now a terrorist because I disagree with your policies foreign and domestic? Will my email now be watched over by the FBI�s Carnivore? A civilized free society awaits your answers because sitting under this sword of Damocles is very uncomfortable.

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PEACE

"The amount of god's will, work, and responsibilities are irrespectively tied to our 'knowledge' and respectively tied to our 'stupidity' about our Universe."-Otkuna