John Barrasso and Prayer in Schools

I was reading an article about John Barrasso's stances on a variety of issues when I came across this quote from our Wyoming Senator: "I have voted for prayer in schools." His responses to a questionnaire is that he strongly favors teacher led prayer in public schools. "Strongly favors" means he believes Judeo-Christian values are American values. Belief in God is what America was founded upon, so praying in school or other public places does not violate the separation of church and state. Displaying the Ten Commandments is appropriate because they are the moral basis for Western law. The Pledge of Allegiance should continue to include the phrase "Under God."

I feel it's a travesty that Jr. Senator Barrasso has this mindset. To me, America is about being a melting pot and accepting all people and celebrating diversity. It seems to me that prayer in public schools opens a floodgate of opportunity for discrimination. If he is going to be for religion in schools, he should embrace all religions and allow for specific customs and time frames of prayer of non-christian faiths. For example, a Muslim child should be allowed to practice their prayers at the times required by their religion. He supports a teacher leading the classroom in prayer based on Judeo-Christianity, but what happens if the teacher is Hindu or Buddhist? The inequity is apparent. Would he require every student to participate? Can a child with an atheist upbringing opt out of participation without being ostracized by pint-sized religious zealots? Can he guarantee that every child would be treated fairly? And what exactly does he think students should be praying for in school...are they praying for better grades or loftier notions such as world peace? How much time in the school day does he deem appropriate? And how would he prevent teachers and staff, in the position of authority and power, from influencing children with their own ideologies. How can Senator Barrasso be for government run schools pushing religion of any kind? When the focus and purpose of attending a public school is education, using the classroom hours for school led prayer seems to be a misuse of valuable time.

Earlier this week I attended a field trip with my first-grade daughter. After the morning bell rang, the class stood up at their desks, put their right hands over their hearts, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It reminded me of a piece I read about the writer of the pledge, Francis Bellamy. His original words, put to paper in 1892, were as follows: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy had contemplated adding the word "equality" to his pledge, but knew the prevailing opinions of the time were against equality for women and African Americans. You'll notice there is no 'under God' in his original piece. That was added later by congress in 1954 after lobbying by the Knights of Columbus. The pledge as it now stands, in my opinion, is discriminatory. People will argue that "Under God" could mean any one's god. When you start calling these various gods by name, the absurdness of this notion shines through. "One nation, under Christ Jesus", or "One nation, under Allah". Heck, why not "One nation, under Thor"? If you can substitute any god, a Christian god, a Hindu god, a Muslim god, then what is the point of pledging allegiance? Isn't the pledge suppose to be a uniting statement? It seems to work better without the religious preferences thrown in.

The government injecting religion into schools is a bad idea. I say let people practice their religion in their churches, mosques, synagogues, and homes, but leave it out of the public school system. The fact that Senator Barrasso supports it is unnerving. Zeus bless America. In Yahweh We Trust.

Sources: http://senate.ontheissues.org/Senate/John_Barrasso.htm
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/10/17/news/wyoming/29-freshman.txt
http://history.vineyard.net/pledge.htm

Obama vs. McCain Round III: Anger Management

Boy, my working for a living is taking time away from this blog! I was able to catch only half the debate last night. I'll get online to see the rest soon, but I have another 24 hours of work in the next two days. My impression from what I saw is that Barack Obama is still the better debater...John McCain looked a little grumpy last night. McCain is going to be desparate and pull out all the stops over the next couple of weeks. If Barack remains cool and collected, which I don't doubt he'll do, I think we're going to see his poll numbers continue to climb.

Take a look at the new debate summary from factcheck.org. Guess what? It appears Joe the Plumber may actually get a tax CUT under Obama's plan. Checking around the web, it appears Joe may not be as "undecided" as he makes himself out to be. I think there may be something fishy about Joe the Plumber...new details are surfacing as we speak, er, blog. I'll keep an eye on it.

Debates and more debates

In this article from the Casper Star Tribune, Terry Jones and Frank Peasley field questions about a statewide smoking ban, penalties for drunk drivers, health care, spending of budget surpluses, business promotion and housing shortages, among other things.

From the Gillette News-Record, this article covers the Trauner, Lummis and Herbert debate from October 5th. They discuss partisan politics, the federal bailout, the Wyoming Range Bill, and retirement benefits for congress. Is it just me or do those three names together look like a law firm? Just saying.

Coming up tomorrow is the forum at the Platte County Fairgrounds. 7-9 p.m., or until the last debater is standing.

Don't forget about Wednesday, the third Presidential debate will be broadcast on a television near you. Bring it on home Barack!

Chris Rothfuss vs. Mike Enzi: The Issues

There is a great collection of clips to watch from the debate between Chris Rothfuss and Mike Enzi that took place on October 5th at Casper College. Here are the youtube.com links:

Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Emission Limits
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Golden Parachute
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Gay Rights
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Abortion
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Finacial Crisis
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Hate Crimes
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Budget and Demand
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Taxes
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Experience
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Earmarks
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: Campaign Finances
Rothfuss vs. Enzi: No Child Left Behind

Meet the Candidates, Part II

Terry Jones spoke next at the forum. He is the only person running for either a state house or senate seat that is from Platte County. He would represent House District #3. He has worked forty-two years for the railroad, has been in Wheatland for 16 years. For two decades he has been with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Union, serving as Chairman for many of those years. He is endorsed by Wyoming Public Employee Association, NRA, AFL-CIO, Wyoming Education Association. His campaign issues discussed included property taxes, noting that Platte County may see their taxes increased the way others around us have, and would like to do something proactively before that happens. He discussed workman's comp, stating that currently your employer can absolutely stop workman's comp. He also discussed not letting land swaps happen and conserving our public lands. He noted areas where Democratic issues have succeeded in our state, including government transparency, the Hathaway scholarship, and the sales tax on food.

In the Q&A session, the current district map was discussed. Terry feels Platte County with a population of 8,000 people qualifies to have it's own district, noting that they will redistrict this county after the next census. He would like to be the voice of Platte County when this issue comes up. He was questioned about what issues face our children in Platte County. Terry felt strongly about education, starting with Head Start funding. He was asked about ideas to bring jobs into the county. Terry was hopeful that with good labor unavailable in Casper, that businesses may look to Platte County for their labor force, and he would like to provide the Wyoming Business Council with more funding to help promote business in Wyoming. He also stated that part of the problem is employers in the county not wanting to pay a salary beyond a certain level, $1200-1500/month. Questions about the nursing home situation were discussed briefly, and were deferred to our county commissioner candidate, Joe Reichardt.

Jason Wright, running for State Senate District #2, spoke next. He works in the IT department at the hospital in Douglas. He'd like to inject some new ideas into the legislature. He would like to push Wyoming into a leadership role on some important issues. He feels Wyoming, having the unique situation of having a small population and a budget surplus, would be able to adopt the first single payer healthcare system in the nation. He also is an advocate of preventative healthcare. He envisions if Wyoming had a single payer healthcare system, there would be a rush of businesses coming to the state for the advantage of not have to pay for health insurance costs to their employees. It would take the burden of healthcare costs and put it on society, and would allow them to be more competitive from this state.

Mr. Wright discussed was the idea of having having curbside recycling in Wyoming, and other forms of transportation to get around the state. In the Q&A, there was quite a bit of talk about using the rail system for traveling, also a state bus system and again a high speed rail, which would follow the current highway system. Jason Wright will be competing against Jim Anderson(R) on November 4th.

Russell Johnson of Veteran, WY is running for State House District #5, a position currently held by Matt Teeters(R) from Lingle, WY. He spoke about his two big issues, taxes and alternative energy. He believes taxes are a little misshapen where farmers, ranchers and some businesses are taxed on personal property. He proposes a state tax starting with over-the-median income, involving only the elite wealthy. For alternative energy, Wind and solar power are on his list of priorities. He is on a committee to start up a wind power district in his local area.

Joe Reichardt, one of three county commissioners for Platte County, spoke last. The county has many current issue, he said, but the situation with the nursing home is what is currently on people's minds. He wanted to make clear that Hospital District Board is responsible for the negotiations with Banner Health. He felt that Banner has been trying to get out of the nursing home business for awhile now, but feels that they signed a contract, and should take the profit and loss together. He stated that there were currently three possible outcomes. 1. Banner stays to run the hospital, and the nursing home closes. 2. Banner stays to run the hospital and nursing home, and they come up with an arrangement that would be acceptable for both sides for this to happen. 3. Another firm would take over and run both the hospital and nursing home. There was a lot of discussion regarding the nursing home, and Mr. Reichardt encouraged people to attend the meeting being held at the Cole Building in Wheatland at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, October 14th.

Our Party Chairman, Don Kneeburg, did a great job giving everyone the opportunity to speak while keeping within the time frames allotted. This forum was a great opportunity to learn a little more about these candidates.

There will be another opportunity tomorrow, October 14th, to pose questions and to hear more from these candidates and others at the 4-H building (Platte County Fairgrounds) from 7-9 p.m. Please attend and bring your questions in written form.

Meet the Candidates, Part I

This is a brief summary of what I heard from the Wyoming Democratic Candidates for U.S. Senate during the Meet the Candidates forum in Wheatland on Sunday.

"When John Barasso took office and immediately shoved his snout in the trough of special interests, I knew someone had to take him on." stated Nick Carter on what compelled him to run for the office U.S. Senate currently held by Barasso.He commented "People in Wyoming want two things. First, they want someone they can trust will represent the people of Wyoming. Second, they want someone with the courage to stand up to their convictions and vote for what's best for the people and not for what will keep them in office."

Regarding healthcare, Mr. Carter feels that people with catastrophic illnesses including the seriously ill and injured, should be covered without the worry of bankruptcy, noting that 2 million people last year had to claim bankruptcy for medical reasons. He would like to make it so small businesses could afford healthcare, reasoning that with the ability to get healthcare, we would see a blossoming of small business from entrepreneurs that can't afford to go out on their own under current conditions.

Concerning energy, Mr. Carter commented that we do not have an energy policy, it's a patchwork of plans, noting that two years ago we thought that ethanol "would deliver us from evil". He would like to see a comprehensive plan to free us from oil in 10-15 years, using clean coal, solar, wind. John Barasso, he said, takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from big oil. He won't vote for wind energy tax credits. He stated that we need to get rid of special interests.

Mr. Carter stated the current financial condition is because Washington has been "Paid to look the other way" from Wall Street. He wants people to know that "Wyoming can't be bought".

Speaking next was Dr. Chris Rothfuss, who is running against Mike Enzi. He noted that when Enzi took office in 1997, the economy was strong, but there were some problems that needed to be addressed, including the foreseen social security problem, our energy reliance issue, and the state of healthcare. In twelve years, Enzi has provided no real solutions. From 2005-2007 Enzi was the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee, which Chris stated made him "The most powerful person in the nation" regarding healthcare. He states Enzi had the opportunity to address healthcare, but says that who benefits the most from Enzi's "10 Point Plan" is the healthcare industry to the tune of 200 billion dollars.

Further noting Enzi's influence from the healthcare industry, he stated that Enzi has received a quarter million from the healthcare industry, while Wyomingites contributions have only totaled $50,000, five times less. He stated Enzi has received another $150,000 from pharmaceuticals. He chided the statement Enzi made that negotiating prices for Medicare Plan B "would not save any money", stating that Enzi is being paid to say that.

Dr. Rothfuss further spoke about the deregulation of the financial industry, noting that the banking regulation legislation from 1933 was removed in 1999, which was a catalyst for the problems we now face. He said "Nobody calls it corruption because EVERYONE is drinking from the trough". The solution? Send people to congress who are above it, referring to himself, Nick Carter and Gary Trauner as "The Untouchables".

In the Q&A session, topics discussed included if Mike Enzi's daughter was receiving money for consulting him(yes, a lot), the candidates stances on the 2nd amendment (both candidates are very much for protecting it as well as ALL our rights), how to rein in Washington lobbyists (federal financing of elections) coal fired power generation and the environment (proper regulation with cap and trade, reduce CO2 emissions produced and change over time to emission-free energy sources, both feel global warming is real), and a nationwide high speed rail system (both for it).

Part II will be a run down of the Wyoming State House and Senate candidates for Platte County, and our County Commissioner incumbent candidate, Joe Reichardt.

Platte County Democrats hold forum

It was a good afternoon in Wheatland as the Platte County Democrats hosted a Meet the Candidates event at the First State Bank Conference Center. I will update with information on what the candidates talked about by tomorrow. I'm grateful to the candidates for taking the time to talk to us, I am very pleased with our Democratic Party choices. Below are a few photos of the event. More soon...

Meet the Candidates Forum Photos