From: cj@eno.wpd.sgi.com (C J Silverio)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Choice! (was: Re: Vice Shrub won)
Date: 15 Oct 1992 23:41:22 GMT
Organization: SGI TechPubs
Reply-To: cj@sgi.com (C J Silverio)
NNTP-Posting-Host: eno.wpd.sgi.com

---
pawlicki@kodak.com (Ted Pawlicki) writes:
|>|>Eric Sieferman :
|>|>As soon as I am satisfied that
|>|>no voucher (tax) money goes to religious schools, then
|>|>I'll pay attention.            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

|>|Ted Pawlicki:
|>|Look, the problem is education, not religion. The fact of the matter is
|>|that a lot of religious schools do a very good job of education. Can't you
|>|put your hatred of religion aside in the interest of quality education? 
|>|Preoccupation with these kind of issues are one of the reasons that the US
|>|educational system is in bad shape.

I wrote the following, not Eric Sieferman!  Get your attributions
straight.

|>Eric Sieferman :
|>I don't hate religion, but I also don't want my tax dollars
|>supporting it.  Fund your church yourself.  I refuse to fund
|>it for you.

|Certainly, you are the only one who can judge your own heart, but I
|think that most people can detect hatred when they read it.
|Senselessly oppossing a group or an insitution to the point where it
|hurts society as a whole is a pretty good definition of hatred in my book.

Where am I opposing religion as a concept, opposing any specific religion, 
or preventing you from supporting yours?  I simply do not want my
tax dollars spent to support your church.  

|One thing seems certain, however: you don`t seem to care much for education.
|It is in society's interest that children learn to read. 

Yes, indeed it is.  I consider investment in public education to
be investment in a skilled workforce, investment in a law-abiding
& productive public, investment in happy people.  I think the
gov't at all levels has a strong interest in making sure that the
people it exists to serve are well-educated.

I also think the gov't has no business supporting churches.
I have some good company with that opinion.

|A lot of religions run some very good schools. 

So send your children to them, and pay for them yourself.
You are free to do so, and our Constitution protects your
right to choose to pay for a religious school.

|I think [...] your inability to accept the fact that religious schools 
|can do a good job of education, shows where your heart is at on this matter. 

Where do I make any such statement?  You are attacking a
strawman.

   1st Amendment 
   Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
   religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
   abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the 
   right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 
   the government for a redress of grievances.

---
cj@eno.wpd.sgi.com    C J Silverio/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American 
people which declared that their legislature should "make no law 
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church 
and State." --Thomas Jefferson

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