Tag Archive for: Washington State

Elementary School Denies Request to Start Prayer Club, Approves ‘Pride Club’

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In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game. Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case. He was represented by a Christian nonprofit legal organization, First Liberty Institute (FLI), which took the position that “no teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public.” This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.

Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old girl who attends Creekside Elementary in Washington State, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school. But her request was denied.

When Laura and her mom approached the principal about the matter in February, they were informed that the school’s budget for clubs had been finalized in October. And according to a spokesperson for Issaquah School District, “[C]lubs offered are student-interest driven and meet outside of the school day. At the elementary level, participation in a club also requires parent permission. Once the school year begins, the building budget is set, and additional clubs are usually not added until the following school year.” But the story doesn’t end here.

Laura’s group, which she hoped to start with her friend, was meant to include people of all different religious backgrounds. She shared with Fox News that she was feeling alone, and that she thought this would be a good idea to bring students together. “I think that this is something that I am very passionate about,” she added. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really want to make this happen, if I didn’t think that it would be a great opportunity for everyone.” It was later discovered that an LGBT club was approved only a week prior to Laura’s club request being denied, which has caused spectators to raise their eyebrows.

As a result of this alleged hypocrisy, Laura filed a lawsuit on the grounds of religious discrimination with the help of FLI. Attorneys pointed out in a letter to the school, “The First Amendment ‘doubly protects religious speech.’ These First Amendment protections extend to elementary school students expressing their sincere religious beliefs through voluntary clubs. Yet the school district flouted its First Amendment obligations when they refused to allow a student-led interfaith prayer club. Its unlawful action violates both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause.”

Kayla Toney, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, explained, “Denying the formation of a religious student club while allowing other clubs violates the Constitution,” drawing attention to the fact that the similar case with Coach Kennedy occurred “just a short drive away” from Laura’s elementary school. And in comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, said, “The fact that Creekside Elementary denied a religious club the same month that it approved a Pride club reveals a lot about American culture right now.”

She continued, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized. It’s heartbreaking that Laura, a fifth-grade student, felt alone at school as a religious believer and that she knew other students who felt the same way. She reacted in exactly the right way by making an effort to build community with religious students.”

Del Turco went on to emphasize that, “Oftentimes, when people seek to prevent religious expression in government venues, they will use the excuse that they don’t want to imply that the government favors one religion over another.” However, when it comes to Laura’s case, she pointed out that “the school doesn’t even have that flimsy excuse because the students were seeking to start a … club that would be open to students of different faiths.”

Ultimately, “Any school that allows other clubs while specifically denying religious clubs is acting in a discriminatory manner and violating the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and the free exercise of religion.” Del Turco concluded, “Christian fifth graders shouldn’t face viewpoint discrimination from their school leadership. It shouldn’t have had to come to this, but I fully expect this injustice to be rectified in the courts.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Will feds decimate one owl species to help another?

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Nearly 500,000 barred owls in northern California, Oregon, and Washington state will soon be under the gun if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goes ahead with its latest scheme to save the endangered northern spotted owl.

In November, the Fish and Wildlife Service unveiled its barred owl management proposal, the centerpiece of which is the removal of approximately 500,000 barred owls via the shotgun or other forms of euthanasia from the habitat of its smaller cousin, the northern spotted owl.

“Barred owl removal is not something the Service takes lightly,” Jodie Delavan, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service, told McClatchy News on March 26. “However, the Service has a legal and ethical responsibility to do all it can to recover northern spotted owl populations.” A final barred owl “management strategy” and a record of decision is expected later this year, Ms. Delavan told McClatchy News.

Since the barred owl is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, killing them — in this case, by the hundreds of thousands — will require a federal permit or regulation. And that is a step the feds appear to be prepared to take.

That the barred owl is covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act is quite appropriate because the bird — beginning in the early 20th century — began migrating westward from eastern North America. By the 1980s, it was well established in the Pacific Northwest, where it occupies the same habitat as the smaller northern spotted owl. The two species feed on the same prey, with the more aggressive barred owl outcompeting its cousin, sometimes even killing northern spotted owls.

When the problem first garnered public attention in the early 1990s, the preferred explanation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups was that the commercial logging of old-growth forests was responsible for the loss of the northern spotted owl’s habitat and thus was behind the bird’s dwindling numbers. Saving old-growth forests, where Douglas fir and hemlock prevail, was seen by the Clinton administration as the preferred solution, and policies were put in place that restricted logging on federal land in the Pacific Northwest. Those policies succeeded in shutting down many sawmills and destroying timber-dependent communities throughout the region.

The Clinton administration even orchestrated an “Owl Summit” at which federal officials and environmentalists congratulated themselves for caring so much about the fate of the northern spotted owl. Those who pointed out that the problem lay not with old-growth forests but with the encroaching barred owl were ignored.

Over 30 years after the summit and the bird’s being added to the Endangered Species List, the situation faced by the northern spotted owl has worsened. While ignoring the mistake it made in blaming the loss of old-growth forest for the northern spotted owl’s declining numbers, the feds now acknowledge that the problem lies with the barred owl. Seizing the bull by the horns — to mix metaphors — the Fish and Wildlife Service initiated an experiment that involved the killing of 2,485 barred owls with 12-gauge shotguns in five different areas, the Modesto Bee reported March 26.

Having concluded that nonviolent removal of the barred owls was impractical, the feds appear to have settled on a lethal approach. This means showing a preference for one species of owl over another, with the “invasive” barred owl coming up short. But is the barred owl really an invasive species, or is it simply expanding its territory, as many species of birds and mammals are prone to do?
The Owl Research Institute, a Montana-based nonprofit focused on owl conservation, is reviewing the government’s proposal.

“Central to this discussion is the determination of whether Barred Owls truly meet the criteria for an invasive species, or if they represent a more adaptable species capable of natural expansion by themselves, as some have suggested,” the institute said in a March 26 statement emailed to McClatchy News.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is operating under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, a statute that has fallen woefully short in fulfilling its mission of recovering species at risk. In the case of the northern spotted owl, the law was used in the 1990s to curtail commercial logging in the Pacific Northwest. That was a political goal pursued by environmentalists in and out of government. As is now clear, it did nothing to improve the lot of the northern spotted owl.

Today, federal wildlife managers are seriously considering an avian version of ethnic cleansing to carry out their “legal and ethical responsibility” under the Endangered Species Act. The statute allows bureaucrats to play God, even if their policies turn out to be ungodly. If they go through with their plan and shotguns are trained on hundreds of thousands of owls, the Endangered Species Act will have reached a new level of absurdity.

This article originally appeared at The Washington Times

AUTHOR

Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.

Bonner R. Cohen is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, where he concentrates on energy, natural resources, and international relations. He also serves as a senior policy adviser with the Heartland Institute, senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and as adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Articles by Dr. Cohen have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, New York Post, Washington Times, National Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, Detroit News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, and dozens of other newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. He has been interviewed on Fox News, CNN, Fox Business Channel, BBC, BBC Worldwide Television, NBC, NPR, N 24 (German language news channel), Voice of Russia, and scores of radio stations in the U.S. Dr. Cohen has testified before the U.S. Senate committees on Energy & Natural Resources and Environment & Public Works as well as the U.S. House committees on Natural Resources and Judiciary. He has spoken at conferences in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Bangladesh. Dr. Cohen is the author of two books, The Green Wave: Environmentalism and its Consequences (Washington: Capital Research Center, 2006) and Marshall, Mao und Chiang: Die amerikanischen Vermittlungsbemuehungen im chinesischen Buergerkrieg (Marshall, Mao and Chiang: The American Mediations Effort in the Chinese Civil War) (Munich: Tuduv Verlag, 1984). Dr. Cohen received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. – summa cum laude – from the University of Munich.

EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PROMOTING DOMESTIC TERRORISM: The Antifa Bomber hated Elon Musk? Why?

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Merriam-Webster Anarchy:

1 a : absence of government
b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority
// the city’s descent into anarchy
c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government

Quote from Willem Van Spronsen’s Manifesto:

i am antifa, i stand with comrades around the world who act from the love of life in every
permutation. comrades who understand that freedom means real freedom fro all and a
life worth living.

keep the faith!
all power to the people!
bella ciao

Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) posted this tweet after Willem Van Spronsen, 69, a member of Antifa was shot and killed by Washington State police after throwing firebombs at cars and at a federal detention facility on July 13, 2019.

CNN recently aired a documentary about the antifa militia whose member was killed in an ICE firebombing attack yesterday. You can see Mr van Sprossen at the 4 second time stamp in this trailer. https://twitter.com/wkamaubell/status/1124397498389356544 …

It was Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who tweeted on June 18, 2019,

This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying. [Emphasis added]

Before being shot to death von Spronsen sent his Manifesto to friends (see full text below). Von Spronsen uses the words “concentration camps”multiple times in his Manifesto. Many of the news agencies picked up on this but they missed something more important.

The real reason for von Spronsen’s attack – violent class warfare leading to an anarchist uprising against our government.

Von Spronsen hated successful people among them Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In his Manifesto Spronsen wrote:

fascism serves the needs of the state serves the needs of business and at your
expense. who benefits? jeff bezos, warren buffett, elon musk, tim cook, bill gates, betsy
de vos, george soros, donald trump, and need i go on? let me say it again: rich guys,
(who think your’re not really all that good,) really did government, (every government
everywhere, including “communist” governments,) because they make the rules that
make rich guys richer.
simple.
don’t overthink it. [Emphasis added]

Von Spronsen was not only a member of Antifa but promoted a hate for the successful like Elon Musk. Why? Because the Democratic Party has made class warfare a part of their public policy. Tax the rich to give free stuff to those who can’t or don’t work for it.

Von Spronsen warned in his Manifesto, “beware the centrist.” This has become the mantra of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has abandoned any semblance of being centrist and has gone toward calling for anarchy and attacks on their political opponents. Anyone who supports the President of the United States Donald J. Trump is fair game. Watch this June 2019 video of Rep. Maxine Waters:

Violence begets violence. There are members of Congress who hate America, embrace Americas enemies and support those who would do America harm. This verbal hatred has turned into the firebombing of a federal facility.

Satyros Phil Brucato on his blog wrote:

Unlike the right-wing “patriots” who have turned our nation into Mass Shooter Central this past decade-and-then-some, Will van Spronsen did not unload bombs and bullets at innocent crowds. He staged a militarized attack against a militarized target that has violated national and international laws as well as the rules of decency and the social contract. He has done what our police should be doing, and the fact that cops and this administration continue to protect and justify these outrages is a greater crime than anything van Spronsen committed there.

This kind of rhetoric leads to more violence against “militarized” targets. This leads to anarchy.

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Antifa bomber’s Manifesto

there’s wrong and there’s right.
it’s time to take action against the forces of evil.

evil says one life is worth less than another.
evil says the flow of commerce is our purpose here.
evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary.
the handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane.
beware the centrist.

i have a father’s broken heart
i have a broken down body
and i have an unshakeable abhorrence of injustice
this is my clear opportunity to try to make a difference, i’d be an ingrate to be waiting for
a more obvious invitation.

i follow three teachers:
don pritts, my spiritual guide, “love without action is just a word.”
john brown, my moral guide, “what is needed is action!”
emma goldman, my political guide, ‘if i can’t dance, i don’t want to be in your revolution”

i’m a head in the clouds dreamer, i believe in love and redemption.
i believe we’re going to win
i’m joyfully revolutionary. (we all should have been reading emma goldmamn in school
instead of the jingo drivil we were fed. but i digress.) (we should all be looking at the
photos of the YPJ heroes should we falter and think our dreams are impossible, but i
double digress. fight me.)

in these days of facist hooligans preying on vulnerable people on our streets, in the
name of the state or supported and defended by the state,

in these days of high profitable detention/ concentration camps and a battle over the
semantics,

in these days of hopelessness, empty pursuit and endless yearning,

we are living in visible fascism ascendant. (i say visible, because those paying attention
watched it survive and thrive under the protection of the state for decades. [see howard
zinn, “a people’s history of the united states.) now it unabashedly follows its agenda with
open and full cooperation from the government. from governments around the world.

fascism serves the needs of the state serves the needs of business and at your
expense. who benefits? jeff bezos, warren buffett, elon musk, tim cook, bill gates, betsy
de vos, george soros, donald trump, and need i go on? let me say it again: rich guys,
(who think your’re not really all that good,) really did government, (every government
everywhere, including “communist” governments,) because they make the rules that
make rich guys richer.
simple.
don’t overthink it.

(are you patriots in teh back paying attention?)

to my comrades:

i regret that i will miss the rest of the revolution.
thank you for the honor of having been in your midst.

giving me space to be useful, to feel that i was fulfilling my ideals, has been the spiritual
pinnical of my life.

doing what i can to help defend my precious and wondrous people is an experience too
rich to describe.

my trans comrades have transformed me, solidifying my conviction that we will be
guided to a dreamed of future by those most marginalized among us today. i have
dreamed it so clearly that i have no regret for not seeing how it turns out. than you for
bringing me so far along.

i am antifa, i stand with comrades around the world who act from the love of life in every
permutation. comrades who understand that freedom means real freedom fro all and a
life worth living.

keep the faith!
all power to the people!
bella ciao

audio manifesto: theSuper8.bandcamp.com

don’t let your silly government agencies spend money “investigating” this one. i was
radicalized in civics class at 13 when we were taught about the electorial college. it was
at that point that i decided that the status quo might be a house of cards. further reading
confirmed in the positive. i highly recommend reading!
i am not affiliated with any organization, i have disaffiated from any organization who
disagree with my choice of tactics.
the semi automatic weapon i used was a cheap, home built unregistered “ghost” ar15,
had six magazines. i strongly encourage comrades and incoming comrades to arm
themselves. we are not responsible for defending people from the predatory state.
ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, i did.

when i was a boy, in post war holland, later france, my head was filled with stories of the
rise of fascism in the 30’s. i promisted myself that i would not be one of those who
stands by as neighbors are torn from their homes and imprisoned for somehow being
perceived as lesser.
you don’t have to burn the motherfucker down, but are you just going to stand by?

this is the test of our fundamental belief in real freedom and our responsibility to each
other.
this is a call to patriots, too, to stand against this travesty against everything that you
hold sacred. i know you. i know your hearts, you see dishonor in these
camps. it’s time for you, too, to stand up to the money pulling the strings of every
goddamn puppet pretending to represent us.

i’m a man who loves you all and this spinning ball so much that i’m going to fulfill my
childhood promise to myself be noble.

here it is, in these corporate for profit concentration camps.
here it is, in brown and non conforming folks afraid to show their faces for fear of the
police/migra/ proud boys/the boss/beckies…
here it is, a planet almost used up by the market’s greed.

i.m a black and white thinker.
detention camps are an abomination.
i’m not standing by.
i really shouldn’t have to say any more that this.

i set aside my broken heart and i heal the only way i know how-by being useful.
i efficiently compartmentalize my pain…
and i joyfully go about this work.
(to those burdened with the wreckage from my actions, i hope that you will make the
best use of that burden.)

EDITORS NOTE: The ICE Bomber’s manifesto: I am Antifa was posted by Jack Posobiec on Twitter: @JackPosobiec

Marijuana use up 12% nationwide during first year of legalization in Colorado, Washington

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The 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released yesterday, shows regular marijuana use among Americans ages 12 and older jumped 12 percent nationwide during the first year legalization was implemented in Colorado and Washington. Regular use increased among all ages: click here or on image above to see increases among ages 12-17, ages 18-25, and ages 26 & older.

Better-Landscape-Photo-1024x576

Washington State: Seattle Group forms to bring more Syrian Refugees to the U.S.

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I suspect this is happening in other cities too—immigrant activists meeting to see how to get more of their mostly Muslim countrymen into the U.S.

If there are any ‘pockets of resistance’ in Washington state be sure to check out who the Syrian activists are and plan to attend their next meeting.

From the Seattle Globalist (no mention of persecuted Christians):

Dozens of Seattle-area residents gathered over the weekend to brainstorm ways to help people fleeing the war in Syria — including bringing more refugees into the state.

[….]

In Seattle, Hussein Ali, a Syrian immigrant who overcame challenges to move his family from Damascus to the U.S., quickly organized the event to make action plans. Ali says he wants the community to pressure their Congressional representatives to increase the limit of 8,000 Syrian refugees allowed into the U.S.

[….]

The next gathering is planned for Sept. 13 at the University of Washington. The group has a new page on Facebook.

It won’t take much to pressure one of their US Senators as Senator Patty Murray is a member in good standing of the Senate ‘Jihad Caucus’ which has gone on record to promote the resettlement of 65,000 Syrians to your towns across America.

Search RRW for more on Seattle, but don’t miss this post about the Seattle low income housing crisis because so many Somali refugees are occupying those units.  Syrians and Somalis will soon be squabbling over housing!

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Washington State Democratic Senator Patty Murray following Dick Durban’s (D-IL) lead in pushing Obama to admit 65,000 Syrians in FY2016.