Keep Church out of Public Schools

Religious Education Belongs in Church

Vote to Keep Church and State Separate

It always amazes me when we have to fight the same fights over and over again.

Our middle daughter attended West Bend West High School in the early 1980s. While she was a student there, a number of West Bend evangelical Christian pastors petitioned the school board to add “scientific” creationism to the high school curriculum. The board held a meeting to discuss the proposal. Anticipating a large turn out and a heated debate, the meeting was held in the old Badger gym.

Over 200 people attended that meeting, including representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and professors of education and anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Over 50 people registered to speak at the meeting. Not one of the pastors who had signed the original petition spoke in support of their proposal. Most of those who spoke opposed the idea of bringing religion into the public school curriculum, including several Christian pastors who opined that religious teaching belonged in church schools, not public ones. I gave the board a copy of a recent federal court decision awarding significant monetary damages and attorney fees to parents whose children had been exposed to the kind of curriculum proposed here. In the end, the board voted by a slim majority to send the matter back to the board’s curriculum committee for further study where the proposal later died.

In the early 1990s, our youngest daughter was a student in the district schools. A group from the community brought up a proposal to add “intelligent design” origin theories into the science curriculum. All of the courts that had heard “intelligent design” cases up to that point ruled that it was just another name for the same creation theory the “scientific” creation cases barred from public schools in the past. Thankfully, the school board rejected this proposal, recognizing that the laws creating the wall between religious teaching and public education would expose the district to unnecessary litigation and expense.

Fast forward to this past Monday. The same basic fundamentalist Christian arguments reared up once again in board member Monte Schmiege’s comments during the discussion surrounding adoption of new science education standards for the district’s schools. Board member Joel Ongert correctly noted that Schmiege’s concerns were more properly applied to Sunday school classrooms than pubic school ones.

Schmiege noted that some scientific theories are based upon assumptions that can and, in some cases, should be examined and challenged if insufficiently supported. That idea does not open the door to challenges to assumptions underlying scientific theories based upon religious beliefs. If you want to challenge theoretical scientific assumptions, develop an alternative hypothesis, test it, test it again and report the factual findings that support your challenge to the assumption. Relying on ancient texts in dead languages translated to satisfy a 17th century church hierarchy has no part in a scientific discussion. In other words, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but not their own facts based upon those beliefs.

Schmiege’s comments exposed what has been evident in some of his public writings. In one, he opposes public education, is a strong proponent of allowing religious education in public schools and does not subscribe to the constitutional principles mandating separation of church and state.

Schmeige’s comments on Monday were supported by school board candidate Mary Weigand. Weigand also has a history of attempting to force her fundamentalist Christian views upon the community. About ten years ago, Weigand joined Ginny Maziarka in leading the fight attempting to ban certain books from the West Bend Community Library because the books’ same sex themes were offensive to their homophobic religious beliefs. Their challenges were ultimately unsuccessful when the library board voted unanimously to leave the books on the library shelves.

Weigand has for years promoted her beliefs that the earth is only 6,000 years old after being created as told in the biblical book of Genesis.  She created a booth setting forth her beliefs that man walked the earth with the dinosaurs after the creation and took it to county fairs around Wisconsin. Weigand has further taken her anti-science stances into our schools when she promoted abstinence only sex education in the face of established studies showing it to be ineffective in preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Monte Schmeige and Mary Weigand are running for seats on the West Bend School Board in the election on April 3^rd. Your vote for Chris Zwagart and Kurt Rebholz will show the community that religious education belongs in churches, not in public schools and that science should be left to scientists who use the accepted scientific method.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled with a Sheboygan county non-profit agency.

Our Local NRA Wannabes

Meet Delta Defense

Your local NRA

The NRA is not the only outfit promoting the absolute, god given right to own and use firearms wherever and whenever we want. We have our own local Delta Defense proudly flying the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag joining that chorus.

For those who missed the Delta Defense signs all over West Bend as it sponsors events and charities to purchase some aura of respectability, the company provides the base for a number of connected entities promoting armed concealed carry and self defense, trading on fear and based on the idea that we need to be ready at a moment’s notice to use deadly force against those who might do us harm.

Tim Schmidt and his wife, Tonnie, who was elected to the West Bend school board last year, founded Delta Defense in 2003.  They first opened in Jackson. Then, they purchased the former Museum of Wisconsin Art building across from the West Bend Library, bailing out the Museum’s construction loan with a grant from local economic development funds. Next, they got more help from the City to build their new headquarters on the hill behind Boston Store. West Bend Mayor Kraig Sadownikow, a proud “Three Percenter,” Second Amendment absolutist and staunch supporter helped engineer city support.

Delta Defense provides logistical and editorial support for the United States Concealed Carry Association, a wholly owned membership club, that provides training for concealed carry instructors, conducts concealed carry classes, hosts concealed carry expos and other firearm and self-defense related activities. It produces and sells a wide range of DVDs and handbooks that tell you how to kill others and avoid the consequences in the pursuit of personal freedom. One of these, “Countering the Mass Shooter Threat,” will teach you how to be the good guy with the gun who saves the day at your local school. They sell insurance to pay your legal fees if you are charged criminally for defending yourself or others and subsequently acquitted. Delta Defense also produces an Internet streamed radio broadcast “Armed American Radio” and lobbies for fewer laws restricting gun ownweship.

The USCCA publishes a slick magazine for its members aptly named “Concealed Carry,” heavily laden with ads for all manner of handguns and knives and devices to hide them.

The magazine publishes handgun, knife and holster reviews, accounts from those who used a gun for self-defense, legislative reviews of enactments that favor concealed carry or seek to impose restrictions on firearms. The July 2017 issue focused on “guns, politics and the law” and exposes the company’s underlying philosophy.

Delta Defense President and CEO Tim Schmidt wrote there, “that the right to keep and bear arms is God-given and affirmed by the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution” and that it was “downright crazy that we should ever have to jump through bureaucratic hoops, submit to permitting processes or ask permission from our government to exercise that God-given right...” He submits only so he can carry a gun for self-defense. His editor follows noting that laws against violence are necessary in a civilized society. Another article claimed, “The whole concealed carry thing is about being ready to shoot someone.” The author continues that arming everyday folks, not just the authorities, actually helps keep the peace because no one wants a shooting war with a neighboring clan less upright.

The most telling article in the July issue recounted lessons learned from the horrific mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida. The first was how difficult it is to prepare mentally for such an event. The second involved how difficult it is, even for a trained law enforcement officer, to actually hit the shooter during a mass-shooting event. Third, nobody fought the shooter. Fourth, no one recognized the danger when the shooter walked in with a rifle. No mention, not a single word, that restricting access to semi-automatic rifles with high capacity magazines might have averted the shooting all together or, at least, given those with handguns a better chance of survival.

No effort like this would be complete without conspiracy theories about the government keeping guns away from the citizenry. The July issue took the Veterans Administration to task for legally informing the FBI about people it deemed “mentally defective” so they could be prevented from obtaining a firearm. This was followed by an article condemning state legislatures for passing laws allowing court ordered firearm confiscation from at substantial risk of harm to themselves or others.

More recent editions of “Concealed Carry” give good advice on dealing with the criminal justice system after you shoot someone, “shut up and lawyer up,” and not so good assessments of the recently passed laws in several western (“Left Coast”) states allowing court ordered firearm confiscations and a gratuitous attack on former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for sponsoring moderate gun reform efforts. The January 2018 edition takes issue with mandatory firearm training requirements for concealed carry permits noting that voluntary training is good but government required training is awful.

If the NRA seems too big and far away to influence, contact Delta Defense and let them know they are on the wrong side of history.

#Enough

Student Survivors Leading the Charge

#Enough #Never Again

President Trump’s responses to the pleas from the student survivors of Florida’s most recent mass school shooting for quick action on gun control were inconsistent and nonsensical.

Arming teachers who, for the most part, have no interest in shooting people who enter schools is a non-starter. We are told there is no money for smaller class sizes, supplies for students, teacher salary increases or social workers. Where will the money for the guns and training come from? No one knows.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had the guts to attend a town hall in Florida after the latest shooting and told student survivors he will gladly continue to take money from the NRA because they support his agenda of more guns everywhere. He did allow that maybe there was some sense in raising the age at which one can purchase a mass-shooting weapon from 18 to 21, but added that it required more study.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) wants more information before considering gun violence reform. This rings hollow after he helped pass legislation that actually prevents the nation’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control from studying the causes of gun violence. The Washington Post just published clear studies showing that mass-shootings declined when the assault weapons ban was passed and went back up after it was allowed to expire.

Wayne La Pierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, spoke Thursday to a conservative political convention, claiming there was an evil in the land leading the fight to take away individual liberties along with our guns. He wants “hardened schools” with armed security guards to prevent intruders. He made no mention of the right to attend school without having to worry about weapons whose sole purpose is to kill as many as possible.

If the Florida high school mass shooting has any bright side, it is found in the cries and pleas of the student survivors. “Enough” and “Never Again.” They are marching to the halls of power demanding an end to the carnage from AR-15s in their schools. Similar marches and protests are being planned across the country. They just want to be safe at school so they can learn.

The student survivors recognize that we adults have lost the fire and the ability to bring about the changes needed keep them safe in their schools. They recognize what the problem is and whose responsibility it is to find the solution. In the words of Emma Gonzales, a Parkland student leader, “we call BS” to all the excuses and artful dodging. Their messages are clear.

It is time to end the sale of military style people killing weapons with their large magazines.

It is time for intensive universal background checks on all weapon sales.

It is time to put the safety of our future generations ahead of any right to own firearms.

It is time for our political leaders to stop taking money from the NRA.

Every political movement for social justice and peace in my life time has been lead by young people who see the problem, know the answer and “call BS” on those who stand in the way.

President Trump, the GOP leaders in Congress and those here in Wisconsin act at their political peril if they continue to ignore the student voices demanding common sense gun control reform. While they may not be able to vote this year or next, their time is coming.

Don’t try half-measures or platitudes. The Internet trolls won’t work either. The student survivors and those who don’t want to see the carnage first hand will continue to speak truth to power until change happens.

Those of us who rose up in earlier political movements have their backs and will lend a hand. I could not be more proud of the lawyers around the state offering free legal help to students disciplined by their schools for engaging in gun violence reform protests.

Change is coming on gun violence. Join in to help make it happen or get out of the way.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled with a Sheboygan county non-profit agency.

Better Checks and Balances

Checks and Balances Prevent Bad Government

Our government is built upon the premise that having three co-equal branches will prevent the unbridled exercise of power by any one or even two of the others.

Legislatures pass laws, the executive branch executes and enforces laws and courts interpret and apply the law to conflicts that inevitably arise between the other two branches or between parties who claim conflicting application of laws. Courts are given the final say on what a law means, if the law is being applied fairly and as the legislature intended or whether the law or its implementation are within the boundaries set by the constitution.

Governments run into trouble when all three branches are controlled by a group with a shared ideology that excludes input and consideration of the views of others. We live in such a time of unbridled exercise of power by a group who ignores those with differing views.

The only available check against this abuse of political power is by the people casting their ballots in elections to fill the seats in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.

The next such election is fast approaching. It will decide whether Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will continue to follow a conservative republican ideological agenda or begin a swing to a more balanced check on the excesses of the conservative Wisconsin legislative republican majority supported by an equally excessive conservative republican Governor.

Judicial races are supposed to be non-partisan. People running for judge or, in this case, Justice are not supposed to run as republicans or democrats. They are supposed to run as impartial advocates for the rule of law. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for much of Wisconsin’s history. While there have been many impartial judges and Justices on our courts, there have always been those beholden to special interests in those seats as well.

With the conservative take-over of our government, bought and paid for by dark money special interests, the non-partisan nature of our judiciary is a dim memory. A majority of the Justices on our Supreme Court were elected as proud conservatives whose pockets and campaign funds were filled with conservative corporate donor cash. The implicit promise made in exchange for the cash was unquestioning support of the conservative agenda. That ends up, not with principled decisions based upon logic and legal precedent, but result driven decisions that break the rules our judiciary is supposed to follow.

The most recent result driven decision by the conservative majority on our Supreme Court involved Wisconsin’s Open Records law that was once the envy of the nation because it exposed the inner workings of the government for all to see. The Court’s most recent interpretation followed two other decisions, all of which increasingly limit what we can find out from our government officials. The case was brought by a teachers’ union against the school administration that refused to provide records involved in a union recertification election. The Court ruled against the union, not based upon precedent, but based on evidence not in the record before the Court. It appears the majority wanted to rule against the union and did just that.

The current race for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court pits a Walker ally conservative trial court judge, Michael Screnock, against two others identified by the dreaded demonic “Liberal” label, Tim Burns and Rebecca Dallet. Conservatives now hold five of the seven court seats and Screnock’s election would maintain that edge.

Screnock’s sole qualification is that he represented the governor in court before the governor appointed him to the bench in 2015. He is supported by large donations from out of state dark money groups bent upon maintaining conservative control of our state’s government.

Rebecca Dallet has spent 20 plus years as a prosecutor and trial court judge in Milwaukee County. Up until her most recent TV ad, she tried to maintain at least a facade of impartiality even while soliciting support and endorsements from those associated with democrats. Her newest TV ad leads with a blatant anti-Trump spot meant to signal she’s really one of us.

I like Tim Burns for the Court. He is brutally honest about his progressive values and the need to restore a more even balance to the Court so that it can serve the functions it was designed to perform. His legal career has been spent doing battle with insurance companies on behalf of those injured by others and his promise is to stand up for the average person against the excesses of government.

If you want a Supreme Court that will start on the way to being an effective check on excesses by the other branches of state government, make your voice heard in the primary election on February 20^th.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for a Sheboygan County non-profit agency.