I'm not sure if that is on the horizon - but we DO know that the County is promoting some kind of Christian bible school this summer, by means of the fancy new Hansville sign at the corner of Eglon Road.
Uhh . . . did anyone stop to think about those possible pesky First Amendment issues? Of course not, because the GHAAC (which, according to its "Operations Manager", Linda Redling, is in charge of the sign) has never bothered to stop and think about how things are different when you are a group cloaked with authority as an arm of County government, as opposed to when you are just a group of people acting in a purely private capacity to try to get goodies from the County.
This will likely turn out to be another "learning experience" for the GHAAC, as they respond with blank stares when somebody asks "Hey, didn't you think about this???" . . . . If you have an opinion on this one way or the other, Linda Redling is your contact, at 638-0007 or email at LR6025@att.com.
Meantime, I will be preparing the sign for my own institution of higher religious learning, Wiegenstein's North Kitsap Madrassa and its upcoming summer school program - free burkahs provided to all girls who attend! Look for the sign coming soon to the Hansville sign location - I'm sure Linda Redling and the GHAAC will gladly agree to put it up, just like they put up the one for the Bible school, right? Of course, people will then have to figure out whether some crazy Jewish guy really is running a Muslim school (how's that for diversity and cross-pollenization?), or if it is merely a long-lapsed Catholic just joking about one. :-)
4 comments:
The Greater Hansville Sign was paid for by the County. The GHAAC controls the sign and allowed a religous group to erect a notice about a vacation bible school. What's wrong with this picture? One problem is that if you allow one religous group to post a notice, you must allow ALL religous groups. Apparently, when the GHAAC asked the County to pay for the sign, the County forgot to apply rules governing the use of the sign.
Mr. Bauer, currently the County Commissioner, drives by the sign every day on his way home. Why didn't he request the sign be removed? Where is the leadership? Why did it take a local resident to complain before the sign was taken down?
I believe this is wrong view of the First Amendment . If you allow any group a sign , regardless religious or not , then you need to be open to this .
What if a secualr group is controversal , are we to ban gay support groups putting up a sign ?
Or a gun group ?
A Bible Vaction Camp is the least of my concern .
Now if the county only allowed one religion to put up a sign I would agree .
Mick
Mick and the previous commenter appear to agree - both seem to be viewing this as an "equal opportunity" issue, where a group or event should not be prevented from using the sign just because they/it are of religious nature. Whether that would be the outcome under a First Amendment analysis, I am not so sure - and I doubt the County is either.
At a practical level, I think that the "equal opportunity" concept Mick states makes good sense, and at the same time could be the hard part for GHAAC to handle. My madrassa is just a hypothetical, so far, but the issue of putting up signs for other possibly controversial groups could strain GHAAC's ability to truly apply a neutral, unbiased process to decisions about the sign. I bet if it were a Gay Guys for Guns group, publicizing a march through Hansville with their 1911's strapped to their hips, the GHAAC would be working awfully hard to find a way to keep that sign from going up. . . .
I agree with Mick, and I also think that, until someone has been unreasonably refused access to the sign, there isn't really an issue here.
I haven't seen the sign, but I do know that some of the churches offer low cost summer programs for people who can't afford more costly daycare programs.
If the sign specifically stated that it was bible school, then there would be an issue if they later refused a Talmud school, but if it was the church summer program, it might be a community service issue.
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