http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article501834.ece
End state's charity checkoff
The state of Florida has no business favoring one charitable organization
over another. Yet it does so by soliciting donations to certain private
groups on state application forms for drivers' licenses and motor vehicle
tags.
Want to save the manatee or crack down on drunken driving? Just check a
box
on the state form and add $1 to $5 to the cost of your license or tag. The
state will then send the money on to the appropriate trust fund for the
charitable organization. More than a dozen groups on the checkoff list
have
collected thousands of dollars this year, though many other deserving
charities aren't listed by the state.
A charity added by the Legislature in a bill this session — Family First,
a
Tampa-based organization that promotes family issues — has created
controversy. The American Civil Liberties Union wants Gov. Charlie Crist
to
veto the bill, arguing that Family First is a religious group whose
inclusion on the list would violate the constitutional principle of
church-state separation.
"We're having the state acting as the collection plate for a religious
organization," said Larry Spalding, an ACLU attorney. Mark Merrill,
founder
of Family First, denies the group is faith-based.
There is no need to resolve that argument. The state should get out of the
business of soliciting for private charities altogether. Let's stipulate
that they are all worthy causes, and some of the checkoff groups already
collect money by offering one of the more than 100 specialty license
plates
(including Family First).
If lawmakers don't get out of the private charity business, they will do
more harm than good — advocating for hometown groups over other deserving
causes, abusing the process for political or ideological gain or putting
so
many choices on required application forms that it confuses people.
Let's leave the administration of state law to the state and the
collection
of voluntary donations to the charities.
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why
"a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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