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June 2002
Volume 11, Number 6
This Month's Articles (click a title to jump to that article):
Recognizing cultural cornerstones
Seven Bills to remember
from the 2002 General Assembly
County Commissioners
join a movement of two to reinstate school prayer
CP brings out the student
vote
Newsbriefs
By LeAnn Baca Bartlett
Dr. Bernice Forrest is a tenured professor at the University of
Colorado, Colorado Springs. She holds a Ph.D. from Tulane University
in United States History. She has also held a part-time position
as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic and Multicultural Affairs,
which she is leaving to consult in the areas of diversity and multicultural
issues in the public and private sectors. CP sat down with her to
talk about U.S. culture.
CP: You're an academician. Can the study of diversity, such
as reading history from different vantage points, help to bridge
boundaries between people?
Education can help, but it's not the entire solution, because
it's an emotional issue - as it always has been. In fact, education
can get in the way of resolving some of these things. People in
education … sometimes we compartmentalize and ategorize things.
We put it in sort of an abstract empirical category that takes the
humanity out. It makes you look at issues as though they are in
a textbook. You don't see it as something affecting your everyday
life at all but as something that happened in the past that is no
longer applicable. The reality is that it's just as much a part
of our emotional, psychological reality now. It's really too much
for most of us to deal with, not so much intellectually but emotionally.
We need to realize all of this puts a burden on each generation
to make a difference. But who has the strength themselves to move
the cornerstone?
CP: What is that cornerstone?
That's the foundation of being counted as a human being, literally,
and secondarily as a citizen. That includes women, people of color,
people who are veterans, people who are physically or mentally challenged
- anything you want to throw in there that doesn't fit the colonial
era qualification for being a citizen. That's the foundation of
our nation. It doesn't matter what field of jobs you're in. It can
be in banking, academe, carpentry; it doesn't matter because the
foundation of the nation is the same and remains constant. It doesn't
matter if it's 1620, 1920, or 2020. The cultural foundation is the
same and it is deeply ingrained. It is so deeply ingrained that
it's not even conscious. There's no need, in other words, to do
what people did in the 1890s or the 1920s: to scream about the dangers
of miscegenation and the threat of a black tide or yellow peril.
There's no need to do that anymore. It was there all along. It is
the foundation of the beginning of what we call American civilization.
It's the cornerstone, and it remains the cornerstone. Most unfortunately,
it's based on implicit assumptions of superiority and power relationships
that go back to the 1550s in Europe. Difficulties among the Europeans
- between the Spanish and the English most obviously - those difficulties
that were carried throughout the rest of the world. It's nothing
new per se, but its relatively new in human history to judge people's
emotional, spiritual, and mental capabilities based upon how they
look. It wasn't the case even in the Roman Empire.
CP: So just because you may understand the social history of
the U.S., it doesn't follow that you will recognize the social boundaries
that continue.
With education, we tend to categorize. We tend to make people, humans,
into abstractions. Rather than seeing them just like us. The more
educated you are, when things happen, the more you can be emotionally
detached and removed from the issues of centrality.
Education is a privilege and it does not substitute for common
sense. And it certainly doesn't substitute for humanity. Now this
is not to denigrate - it must sound very bizarre - but I'm trying
to make the point that if you want to make change in contemporary
society, you have to dismantle these artificial barriers of class
and ethnicity. Educational attainment does not necessarily lead
to reconciliation and cooperation nor does it translate into understanding.
CP: What can individuals do to bridge gaps that education alone
may not?
One of the best ways to bridge these gaps is to become involved
in a community concern in which you have an interest or an expertise,
a place where different kinds of people come together for a similar
purpose. It could be culturally based in a museum; it could be spiritually
based in some kind of organized spiritual religious experience;
or in some kind of positive activity that brings people together,
who traditionally in the United States have not been together. That
might be a women's shelter agency, Mi Casa Resource Center for Women,
or Inroads Colorado. There are convergences and nexus points, access
points in every community where you can find an individual who's
interested in bridging the gaps.
It's up to that individual to take those steps - nobody's going
to come knocking at your door inviting you to enlarge your humanity.
The burden of responsibility for changing things rests with the
individual reaching out. Sometimes it takes overcoming fear and
ignorance, and most of all it takes overcoming indifference. Someone
once said that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.
An indifferent person is worse than a mushroom that's been plucked
from under the tree, a poisonous one you can't even use for cooking.
That person is just useless. Sometimes there are steps that people
are unwilling to take because they're afraid that they are going
to be ostracized by their peers; that they're not going to fit anymore
in their family or groups that they're associated with. It can be
scary, but what people don't see is that when they take the leap
or the step, it humanizes them. It's a responsibility, commitment
and obligation, and an act of faith. In a secular sense, it's human.
We'll bring you more from this conversation in a future issue
of Freedom Watch.
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by Greg Borom
The 2002 Colorado General Assembly ended its 120-day cycle on
Wednesday, May 8, 2002. Issues of redistricting, budget shortfalls,
and gun permits dominated the headlines of legislative coverage
in The Denver Post and The Gazette. But with over
700 bills introduced this session, one is hard pressed to find a
public issue that the legislators didn't try to address. Citizens
Project's public policy committee identified seven bills to be included
in our 2002 Legislative Agenda. The committee chose these bills
based on their relevance to Citizens Project's mission to promote
pluralism, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state.
Following is a summary of the seven bills and how they fared.
Senate Bill 9 "Ethnic Intimidation Bias Hate Crimes"
Fate: Failed! SB 9 passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee
and the Senate Appropriations Committee. The full senate passed
the bill on a vote of 19-15. Upon entering the house, SB 9 was assigned
to the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee where
it was "postponed indefinitely" - the legislative term
for killing a bill.
Bill Summary: The Bias-Motivated Crimes Bill would have expanded
the crime of ethnic intimidation (it currently includes race, color,
ancestry, religion, and national origin) to include intimidating
a person because of physical or mental disability, age, sexual orientation,
or gender identity. The bill also proposed changing the name of
the crime of ethnic intimidation to bias-motivated crime, creating
a training component for law enforcement, and providing for alternative
sentencing and/or restorative justice programs.
Senate Bill 74 "Sexual Orientation Discrimination"
Fate: Failed! Passed by the senate 19-15. SB 74 then followed
the same path as SB 9 in the house - "postponed indefinitely"
by the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee.
Bill Summary: SB 74 would have expanded employment non-discrimination
to include sexual orientation and gender identity. It applied to
state laws covering hiring, firing, compensation, referrals, labor
organization practices, and apprenticeships. It excluded religious
organizations from its coverage.
Senate Bill 136 "Teaching Patriotism in Public Schools"
Fate: Failed! This bill survived the entire process, passing
the senate 27-7 and the house 38-25. However, the bill was "deemed
lost" when the senate chose not to review and accept the amendments
made to the bill by the house.
Bill Summary: SB 136 would have encouraged all public school
districts to teach an "age appropriate" unit on patriotism
in all grades. If such a class were taught, it would require the
curriculum to include recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
House Bill 1309 "Private School Tax Credit"
Fate: Failed! "Postponed Indefinitely" by the Senate
Judiciary Committee after passing the house.
Bill Summary: HB 1309 created a convoluted scheme to transfer
state tax dollars exceeding the TABOR limits to private schools.
This back-door voucher bill would have created a tax credit for
individuals donating to nonprofit organizations that provided scholarships
to private school students.
House Bill 1332 "Require Daily Pledge of Allegiance"
Fate: Failed! Passed the house, but "postponed indefinitely"
in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bill Summary: Enforced patriotism seemed to be several legislators'
pet project for this year. HB 1332 would have required all public
schools to begin the day with the Pledge of Allegiance. This would
have usurped the authority of local school districts to decide policy
on this issue.
House Bill 1356 "No Same Sex Birth Certificates"
Fate: Failed! Assigned to the House State, Veterans, and Military
Affairs Committee where it passed. After passing the full house,
it was "postponed indefinitely" by the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Bill Summary: After a child is adopted in Colorado, the child's
birth certificate is changed to reflect the adoptive parents names.
HB 1356 would have denied this procedure for same-sex parents, but
allowed it to remain for opposite-sex parents.
House Bill 1296 "Office of community and faith-based initiatives"
Fate: Failed! Another bill passing the house, but ending its
life in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bill Summary: HB 1296 would have created a state Office of
Community and Faith-Based Initiatives to provide technical assistance
to churches, religious organizations, and community organizations
seeking to provide services with public dollars. The office would
have been funded through private donations or grants.
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a word from Executive Director, Greg Borom
Citizens Project firmly opposes the April 18th resolution by the
El Paso County Commissioners to reinstate school prayer and endorse
US House Joint Resolution 81. The resolution notes that the El Paso
County Commissioners now join with the Washington County, Pennsylvania
Board of County Commissioners in urging all cities and counties
across the US to pass similar resolutions and unite in a "grass
roots" movement to reinstate school prayer.
Our US Constitution affords its citizens the right to religious
freedom and guards against establishing any official religion -
reiterated in part of HJR 81. But HJR 81 threatens church and state
separation by allowing religion and prayer free reign on public
property - including public schools.
Citizens Project fully supports students' rights to religious expression
in schools. These rights are outlined in a US Department of Education
publication entitled: "Religious Expression in Public Schools:
A Statement of Principles." Over 20 local clergy and educators
endorsed these principles after participating in the Religion in
Schools Forum sponsored by Citizens Project in 2001.
Student rights include privately praying, congregating before or
after school for prayer or religious clubs and meetings, distributing
religious material at school (consistent with regulations for distributing
any other non-academically related material), expressing religious
themes in their assignments, being excused from class for religious
reasons, and wearing religious clothing (consistent with a school
dress policy). Individual students enjoy numerous opportunities
to express religious beliefs at school without subjecting other
students to prayer recitation in classrooms or other mandatory settings.
HJR 81 would undermine court rulings on posting the Ten Commandments
in schools and public buildings by allowing such displays as a "recognition
of religious heritage." While HJR 81 includes language stating
that government is not establishing a religion, posting the Ten
Commandments in school classrooms, statehouses, courts, etc. would
seem to raise particular religious faiths to a level of preferred
treatment.
Our Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and keeping
government out of religion have helped strengthen our nation's religious
diversity. Amidst this diversity, it is imperative that we guard
not only our own, but our neighbor's, right to religious freedom.
It is often those persons that are in the religious minority who
truly appreciate - and rely upon - the brilliance of our Constitution's
treatment of religion. Citizens Project promotes religious freedom
(and freedom to have no religion) and church and state separation
as set forth in our Constitution. We wish for our County Commissioners
to share these Constitutional values.
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by Linda Kogan
Citizens Project's Student Outreach Program is wrapping up a very
successful student voter registration drive. Conducting drives in
seven local high schools throughout April and May, Citizens Project
registered over 330 new voters.
Citizens Project recognizes that student voices often go unheard
and voter turnout among young adults is low. According to a study
by New Millennium Young Voters Project, only 30% of those 18-24
years old voted in the most recent presidential election.
Our voter registration team included two Colorado College students,
Shahnaaz Evans and Tiara Grant; Mitchell High School National Honors
Endorsement student Ellen Ruminski; and Citizens Project staff.
Shahnaaz and Tiara developed a creative campaign of posters and
postcards and dedicated many hours at the high schools, encouraging
students to register.Citizens Project was well received by the majority
of students. We fielded questions regarding the dates of elections,
voter eligibility, what offices were up for re-election, and absentee
voting for college students.
CP extends its appreciation to the administrators and teachers
who welcomed and assisted our voter registration efforts. We look
forward to the day when voter registration is an integral component
of the senior year curriculum. Until then, Citizens Project will
be back again next year.
One of our strategies to increase voter registration included encouraging
competition among the high schools. Our final tally for this year's
efforts are: Manitou 12,
Doherty 38, Mitchell 45, Wasson 55, Sierra 52, Coronado 60, with
the award of recognition going to Palmer High School for its 76
new voter registrations. We would like to congratulate all students
who registered to vote. Perhaps there is a citizen out there who
would be willing to offer a scholarship next year for the school
that registers the most students?
For those who missed our voter registration drives, it is not too
late. The process takes about two minutes and can be done in several
places: 1) Register to vote when you get or renew your drivers license.
2) Go to your local Clerk and Recorders office. Call 575-VOTE to
find the nearest location. 3) Get the registration online at www.elpasoco.com/clerkrcd/elemain.asp.
For all those newly registered graduates: don't let your voices
go unheard. Vote this year!
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Joes won't teach creationism and evolution together
Joes, Colorado, with a population of 315, is getting statewide attention
due to an initiative to put creationism into the school curriculum.
About 150 miles east of Denver, the lone school in Joes serves 103
students from kindergarten through 12th grade. (Creationism is the
belief that the world was created exactly as outlined in Genesis,
the first book of the Christian Bible, according to the Denver Post,
4/9/02.) School officials proposed to teach creationism alongside
evolution in order to offer another perspective on the origins of
the universe. Critics, including one 16-year-old student, didn't
think the curriculum change was a good idea, since "different
religions believe different things. If you teach creationism, you
should have to teach about every religion." Americans United
for Separation of Church and State threatened to sue the school
district if creationism was included in the curriculum. Local parents
and students objected to the proposal, wanting to keep religion
out of the public school classroom. In April, the Liberty Board
of Education voted down the idea spearheaded by Douglas Sanford,
a school board member and Baptist minister.
New mascots address more than fun and games
The farming community of Eaton, north of Greeley, is embroiled in
a debate over the high school mascot: the Fightin' Reds. The mascot
is a caricature of a Native American, with a crooked nose, wearing
a loincloth and a feather. Many students and community members in
the area find the mascot offensive. At the University of Northern
Colorado, Native American students have taken a creative approach
to bringing the point home. Native American students formed an intramural
basketball team called the Fightin' Whities. The Fightin' Whities
mascot is a middle aged white guy paired with the phrase, "Every
thang's gonna be all white!"
The UNC students brought national attention to the issue, as the
New York Times and CNN interviewed the players regarding their protest.
Many community members, students at the high school, and the school's
principal feel unduly targeted for their cherished school tradition.
Others in the community and at UNC support the statement made by
the UNC students. The basketball team members of the Fightin' Whities
wanted to stir up the mascot debate and promote deeper cultural
discussions.
Team names subject of legislation
In California, American Indians have filed legislation that would
outlaw the use of American Indian team names and mascots in public
schools. School mascot names such as Redskins, Chiefs, and Apaches
would be removed from use at middle schools, high schools, community
colleges, and state universities, according to the Gazette Telegraph,
May 16.
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