Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,

Paste these e-mail addresses for the school board into the “to” line of your e-mail:

PDosenberry@mtpleasant.edzone.net; LMcBride@mtpleasant.edzone.net; DBriggs@mtpleasant.edzone.net; RDoneth@mtpleasant.edzone.net; GNewland@mtpleasant.edzone.net; BAlford@mtpleasant.edzone.net; EHarris@mtpleasant.edzone.net

Thank you for your support, which is deeply appreciated, and…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Fri., Nov. 30, 2007
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978
Pam Dosenberry 989-773-7995
President, Mt. Pleasant School Board

Traditional values group says recognizing
Christmas in schools is fully constitutional

Mount Pleasant schools urged to drop Christmas censorship policy

School calendar lists day off for “Good Friday” but calls Christmas vacation “winter break”

MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — A statewide traditional values organization headquartered in mid-Michigan is accusing the Mount Pleasant Public Schools of censorship over a reported policy prohibiting any mention in school of the words “Christmas” or “nativity” or “Santa.”

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, located in Midland, Friday wrote President Pam Dosenberry and other members of the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education, urging them to drop the Christmas censorship policy.

“This censorship policy may be politically correct,” Glenn wrote, “but it is not constitutionally required or correct, and it raises the obvious and much broader question of whether the school district’s enforcement of a policy censoring any mention of Christmas is violating the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of students and faculty.”

“The American Family Association of Michigan urges Mt. Pleasant Public Schools to drop its ‘politically correct’ censorship policy,” Glenn wrote, “and allow students and faculty to both recognize and even celebrate the Christmas holiday at school, a right clearly protected by the Constitution and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court so long as no student who may object is required to participate.”

The school district’s Christmas censorship policy gained notoriety worldwide this week when United Press International Wednesday published the following report:

“Organizers of a Mt. Pleasant, Mich., festival have taken ‘Christmas’ out of the celebration’s name to allow them to advertise the event in schools. The town’s Dickens Christmas Festival has been renamed the Dickens Holiday Festival to allow the city to offset its small advertising budget by placing fliers in schools. …’We changed the name this year for the schools because we wanted to advertise in the school brochures, and the schools have a list of words you can’t use like Santa, Christmas and Nativity,’ Downtown Development Coordinator Michelle Sponseller said. ‘So (we) did a brochure for the schools and we took those words out. But we have a brochure we did for the public and the word Christmas is still in it.’” http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/28/festival_drops_christmas_from_title/4447

Glenn said that among the school district’s policies and administrative procedures published in full on the district’s web site, he could find no formal written policy that prohibits the use of certain words at school. He said he spoke Friday to school Superintendent Joe Pius, who confirmed that it is an informal rather than written policy by which the district does not allow material that makes reference to “Christmas” to be distributed to students but does allow material that uses the word “holiday.”

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Michigan Republicans Joe Knollenberg, Thad McCotter, and Candice Miller voted in favor of Barney Frank’s federal homosexual “rights” legislation, which House Republican Leader John Boehner says will weaken state and federal laws protecting marriage. (See statement below)

Joe Knollenberg 248-851-1366
Thad McCotter 734-632-0314 or 248-685-9495
Candice Miller 586-997-5010

House Republican leader: ENDA bill will be boon to
trial lawyers, weaken state and federal marriage laws

Washington, Nov. 7, 2007 – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement opposing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA):
“There is no doubt that this legislation will lead to endless, excessive litigation that will further bog down our courts at a high cost to employers, workers, and taxpayers. For example, the bill purports to protect workers based on their ‘perceived’ sexual orientation – a highly subjective concept that is bound to tie the legal system in knots. Congress would be well-served to focus on ways to reduce the amount of frivolous lawsuits, not compound the problem by adding new, obscure ways for trial lawyers to game the system.

“This legislation also drastically weakens religious freedom in the workplace and puts activist judges in the position of imposing same-sex marriage and civil union laws on states. Simply by using ENDA as the basis of their decisions, just as state Supreme Courts have done with state-level ENDA laws in the past,– liberal judges will be empowered under this legislation to single-handedly undermine state and federal marriage laws across the country. I’Â’m disappointed that the Majority turned back a straightforward proposal offered by House Republicans to protect state and federal marriage laws from being overturned, modified, or restricted by activist judges as a result of this deeply flawed legislation.”
http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=78178

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wed., Nov. 7, 2007

CONTACT: Gary Glenn - 989-835-7978
Joe Knollenberg - 248-851-1366
Thad McCotter - 34-632-0314 or 248-685-9495
Candice Miller - 586-997-5010

Michigan Republicans Joe Knollenberg, Thad McCotter, Candice Miller support federal homosexual “rights” legislation

Three GOPers side with Barney Frank, ignore White House warning that
bill threatens religious freedom and validates homosexual “marriage”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Michigan Congressional Republicans Joe Knollenberg, Thad McCotter, and Candice Miller were among 35 GOP House members nationally who joined Democrats and homosexual activist groups Wednesday in supporting Rep. Barney Frank’s federal homosexual “rights” legislation, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 235 to 184.
“Joe Knollenberg, Thad McCotter, and Candace Miller sided with homosexual activist groups and liberal Democrats like Barney Frank to support legislation that threatens religious freedom, gives federal recognition to homosexual marriage, and discriminates against individuals, business owners, and organizations who believe homosexual behavior is wrong,” said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan.

“By voting with Barney Frank and homosexual activist groups, they ignored warnings by the White House, rejected the Republican Party platform, and thumbed their nose at the people of Michigan, who overwhelmingly voted to constitutionally protect marriage as only between one man and one woman,” Glenn said.

“We urge Michigan families to hold Knollenberg, McCotter, and Miller accountable for helping Barney Frank pass legislation that would — for the first time in federal law — grant recognition to so-called homosexual ‘marriage’ and create special rights based on sexual behavior.”

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