Please join AFA-Michigan in urging Howell Public School officials to join other school districts across Michigan in displaying posters that feature the official motto of the United States: “In God We Trust.”

E-mail Howell Schools Supt. Charles Breiner at:
Super@HowellSchools.com
or call 517-548-6200

DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
Howell, Michigan
June 29, 2005

(Letter to the Editor)

Howell schools say no to U.S. motto

The Howell Public School Board formally approved displaying the officially recognized “gay pride” flag, despite the constant school disruptions and offense it causes many students and parents, but they refuse to join other school districts across Michigan in displaying the official motto of the United States: “In God We Trust”?

Let’s give school board President Mary Jo Dymond the benefit of the doubt and assume it was simply ignorance or confusion that led her to say that “until all of this is settled in our Supreme Court, we feel it would be inappropriate to accept” a local parents’ group’s offer to donate enough posters of the national motto for every classroom in Howell.

Displaying the official motto of the United States is not something waiting to be “settled” by the Supreme Court. Federal courts long ago approved the motto and its display as fully constitutional.
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Dear Friend of the Family,

Allstate has fired a manager because he expressed his Christian beliefs concerning homosexuality. Matt Barber was a manager in Allstate’s Corporate Security Division. On his own time, and without identifying himself as an employee of Allstate, he wrote a column posted on several websites which was critical of same-sex marriage.

An outside homosexual group complained to Allstate about the column. Because of their support for the homosexual agenda, Barber was immediately fired and ushered off company property.

The message is clear: To work for Allstate one must not publicly express their Christian belief in the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality. Barber was fired because he did. Homosexuals can criticize and condemn the Bible’s teaching and they are welcomed, but Christians must remain silent.
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by Christopher Nagy; Daily Press & Argus

A group of community activists can’t yet define the “traditional family values” they endorse, although supporting the national motto is apparently one of them as the flap over the diversity flag at Howell High School continues.

The Howell Public Schools Board of Education begged off from accepting a framed copy of the phrase “In God We Trust” at its meeting Monday night. A grass-roots group calling itself the Livingston Organization for Values in Education — or LOVE — offered the gift to the school board for display in the district’s administrative offices. The group also said it was willing to provide the district with enough copies of the motto to display in every classroom before the board put the brakes on the offer.

School board President Mary Jo Dymond said the district didn’t want to put itself in a potentially litigious situation.
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“A former local United Auto Workers activist, known for his sometimes-maverick views and hard-line stance against General Motors, is among a handful of Michigan residents joining a drive to oppose the AFL-CIO’s support of gay rights. Michael Westfall, a retired truck driver and member of UAW Local 598, is one of three state residents who have signed a national petition…urg(ing) the union to rescind its opposition to a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. …Westfall, 59, now finds himself aligned with state Sen. Mike Goschka, R-Saginaw, and Gary Glenn, Michigan president of the American Family Association in signing the petition against the AFL-CIO. …’I'm not anti-union, but the union doesn’t come first,’ Westfall said. ‘With Christians, Christ and the Bible come first.’”

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On own time, man posted “anti-gay” article insurance giant says didn’t reflect its values

Matt “Bam Bam” Barber. Photo: Chris Cozzone

by Ron Strom, WorldNetDaily.com

A former manager with Allstate has sued the insurance giant, alleging the company, which financially supports homosexual advocacy groups, fired him solely because he wrote a column posted on several websites that was critical of same-sex marriage and espoused his Christian beliefs.

J. Matt Barber was a manager in Allstate’s Corporate Security Division, its investigative arm, at the Fortune 100 company’s headquarters in Northbrook, Ill. Besides working for the insurance provider, Barber was and is a professional heavyweight boxer, a jazz drummer and a Web commentator. His columns have appeared on TheConservativeVoice.com, MensNewsDaily.com and others.
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Campus administrator says newsletter reference must be ‘Parent’s Day’
by Ron Strom, WorldNetDaily.com

A pre-school in Maryland has lost at least one customer after a student’s father working on the school’s newsletter was told he must change a “Happy Mother’s Day” greeting in the publication to “Happy Parent’s Day.”
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Please read this letter to the editor from a teenage girl at Howell High School, where school officials are allowing the so-called “Diversity Club” to fly the officially-recognized “gay pride” rainbow flag in the main school stairwell to protest Michigan voters’ approval last year of the Marriage Protection Amendment.

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“AFA of Michigan and a group of Flint pastors are praising Genesee County’s Sheriff Robert Pickell for protecting children and public health by making sure Richfield County Park does not continue to be used by homosexuals as a meeting place for sex. Glenn, who is the president of AFA-Michigan, says families have a right to visit a county park without being exposed to public sodomy.”
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Please follow Paul Weyrich’s example by publishing your own commentary to help educate pro-family union members about the AFL-CIO’s homosexual “marriage” resolution.

“(AFL-CIO President John) Sweeney made a miscalculation which could cost him the election. Approximately 44 pro-family organizations sent a letter to Sweeney asking him to reverse the AFL-CIO position on the Federal Marriage Amendment and the various state marriage amendments. In an unreported move, Sweeney formed a coalition with Gays and Lesbians and had the AFL-CIO Executive Committee approve a resolution against traditional marriage. …The pro-family groups told Sweeney that they would do everything possible to see that rank and file union workers knew about this resolution before the AFL-CIO Annual Convention in Chicago in July. …(I)f enough AFL-CIO members learn about the anti-traditional marriage resolution, they may cast their lot with the dissidents. It could determine whether Sweeney keeps his job.”
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WORLD NET DAILY
June 18, 2005

Pro-family groups take on Big Labor Demanding AFL-CIO drop resolution backing same-sex marriage

The groups sent a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, asserting the resolution threatens the rights of workers who support traditional marriage and families, reported Agape Press.

The AFL-CIO Executive Committee’s March 3 resolution, which labor officials unanimously adopted, opposes federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.

The resolution reiterates the AFL-CIO’s “longstanding support for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace and society.”

The Executive Committee says a federal Marriage Protection Amendment and its state counterparts “threaten the rights of working people by creating an environment across the nation that is hostile to the rights of domestic partners, regardless of their sexual orientation.”

But the coalition of pro-family leaders contends it’s the AFL-CIO that is threatening the rights of its workers who support traditional marriage and families.
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“(Genesee County) Sheriff Robert J. Pickell met with leaders of the American Family Association of Michigan on Wednesday but said that he’s staying out of a war of words between the conservative group and the Triangle Foundation, a gay rights organization. The organizations have been battling over the arrest of eight men, including two educators and a county employee, during a sex sting at Richfield County Park in late May and early this month. …Pickell met Tuesday with Triangle, which calls itself Michigan’s leading organization serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied communities, then met with AFA-Michigan President Gary Glenn and several area pastors Wednesday. Glenn came out of that meeting saying parents ‘have a right to know if men employed in our public schools were among those arrested for soliciting homosexual activity.’ Pickell has already said an assistant principal and teacher were among the men ticketed for being a disorderly person, but he hasn’t identified either.”

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“In the other ear is the American Family Association of Michigan, which has supported the sweeps to keep the park family-friendly. …The sheriff had originally reported nine men were arrested (for soliciting homosexual activity) in a two-day sting at the county park, including a teacher and assistant school principal. The AFA is suggesting that two educators arrested in the sting be suspended from their jobs and removed from ‘positions of proximity to and authority over young children.’ …Gary Glenn, president of the AFA-Michigan, said he planned to bring pastors and others to his meeting this morning with the sheriff. ‘We want to express our deep gratitude … for his not being intimidated by politically correct demands from a homosexual action group from Detroit.’ …Glenn said the AFA is involved because it has compassion and wants to protect people from the public health hazard of anonymous sex. ‘If we didn’t care, we would just be quiet about it,’ he said.”

Pastor, union worker takes gay marriage opposition online
by Tammie Brewer, Brookhaven Daily Leader

A local pastor and union worker, striking back at the AFL-CIO’s opposition to a federal amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, has launched a Web site to further his cause.

The Rev. Kendall Boutwell, 41, who leads a Brookhaven church and also works at Georgia Pacific in Monticello, created www.unionworkersagainstgaymarriage.com to enlist support against the president and executive council of the AFL-CIO, which in March announced its opposition to a federal marriage amendment.

The AFL-CIO is an umbrella organization for nearly 60 American labor unions comprising more than 13 million dues-paying workers, said Boutwell, who is a member of United Stell Workers Local 371.

“We hereby declare that MARRIAGE is the union of one man to one woman, and we do not support legal recognition of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil unions. WE SUPPORT THE FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT!” an announcement on Boutwell’s Web site states.

“The AFL-CIO didn’t ask the unions what they thought,” Boutwell said, so he and other union workers at Georgia Pacific decided to make a stand against gay marriage.

“Only 1 to 2 percent of the population wants gay marriages,” Boutwell said, “not the other 98 percent.”
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