Back from a Wonderful Place

Posted on April 2, 2015 by AZAtheist

Nancy and I just returned from “down under.” We visited Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. It was a bucket list accomplishment and we’ll be paying for it for a while but it was worth it. We’ll be headed for Memphis for Easter weekend in a few hours to attend the American Atheist Convention and more good times with great friends and fellow free thinkers.

The trip to Australia was a double celebration of sorts. Nancy and I celebrated our 40th (Ruby) anniversary on Oct 6th, 2014 and that’s when I booked the trip. We didn’t actually go until her birthday on March 11th so I should get double credit. (Those that want to reach their 40th should take note.) I have great memories and about 1500 pictures of the things we saw. In a nutshell: we travelled to Sydney and toured the city and the Blue Mountains nearby, then we took an 8 day cruise out of Sydney to New Caledonia and some neighboring islands and returning. From Sydney we flew to New Zealand for a “whiz bang” 4 day blast through the Southern Island. It was so beautiful and natural there that it actually hurt. One of the fellow travelers stated, “OK, New Zealand! You’re beautiful. Now you can cut it out.” We enjoyed our tour of Sydney. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and funny. The cruise on the Celebrity Solstice was very enjoyable and ironically the Equinox occurred while we were on the Solstice. We also noted that PI day occurred during our trip. The Islands of New Caledonia were great. We saw the capitol city of Noumea, Lifou, and the Isle of Pines. We snorkeled, shopped, and visited museums and an aquarium. Finally after returning to Sydney we flew to New Zealand. We rode a train through some mountains then we toured the country in a bus driven by a 74 year old knowledgeable, pleasant gentleman named Bruce. He drove us through beautiful country that looked like a national park—on the left side of the road. There was a lot of travelling in a lot of beautiful country. Nancy and I rode a helicopter that landed on a glacier and we walked in the woods at night and saw the amazingly cool, clean light of glow worms.

It was a great trip!

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Plans for a New Year

Posted on January 13, 2015 by AZAtheist

2014 is over.

We laughed. We cried. It was better than Cats. …and it’s references like these that helped me lose my open mic audiences at Laff’s during the 9 times I appeared there last year. Yes, the audiences sadly didn’t get my dated references but as a result of Nancy filming me I was motivated to lose the extra 30 pounds that I was hauling around. Yes, 2014 had its ups and downs, wins and losses? We’re at the start of a whole new year! I don’t have resolutions (Actually, I did resolve to quit procrastinating. I made it yesterday.)

Plans for 2015.

Nancy and I have plans for 2015 which include a celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary with a trip “down under” in the spring. We’ll also be going to the Atheist conference in Memphis and drive to Vegas once again for TAM (The Amazing Meeting). I’ll be supporting Camp Quest again this year and I’ll be working hard to continue to build the Tucson and Arizona freethinking community. By Easter, I’ll finish the series of articles about community building and sharing my thoughts on the care and maintenance of volunteers. Easter is when we’ll travel to Memphis for the National American Atheists Convention.

2015 marks my 10th year of Atheist activism. Prior to 2005, I carried one of those little memo books around in my shirt pocket. On the first page was a list of things that I wanted to accomplish. They were big things like refurbish my classic car, replace the carpeting in the house, add a balcony, and build a workshop. In 2005, I was 3 years from my second retirement and I stopped adding to the list. The things on the list got done and I was approaching the point when I needed to find a new purpose. I had plenty of hobbies to keep me busy but I needed something that needed to be done and something that would make a difference long after I’m gone. Hanging more trophies on the wall wasn’t going to do it for me anymore. Nancy and I started getting busy with Skepticism, Atheism, and Humanism. We joined the related organizations but it wouldn’t be long before I would move into a leader position. It is inevitable but so is burnout but there is so much left to accomplish.

Our next Tucson Atheists meeting will be about our Atheistic New Year’s resolutions. Austin Cline who writes for About.com and claims to be an Agnosticism/Atheism expert listed a few of the ready-made resolutions that we should all consider:

Practice Skepticism and critical thinking

Engage in self-reflection and introspection

Read, study, and learn

Be open and honest about Atheism

Engage people in discussion

Be more politically active

Actively promote equality and civil rights

Defend the separation of church and state

To be fair, we all do these things to some extent already. It’s hard not to. But how much further along the road would we be if we all carried one of those little memo books around in our shirt pocked with these things listed on the first page?

Posted in American Atheists, Atheist Action, Freethought Community, Religion, Secular Coalition for Arizona, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Good Thing to do After Election Day

Posted on November 6, 2014 by AZAtheist

I’ve been busy with Halloween for the last several weeks and I need to get back to the series on building a secular community but not today. Today, I want to offer an idea that is particularly suited to this time of year—the day after Election Day.

The political signs that line our roadways are so ubiquitous that after a while they sometimes disappear from our consciousness. I never quit noticing them, however. In the past, I would pick up the roadway signs of those that lost in the primaries because there were a lot of them. The material is suitable for making small durable control line airplanes. Like the one pictured here:

But this year I’m still packing up Halloween decorations and I was in need of packing boxes. So early Wednesday morning, I took off in my Ford Ranger to get some free raw materials. I didn’t have to travel far out of the neighborhood before I had a truck bed full of brightly painted Coroplast material.

I was in particular need of a box for my rapping skeleton prop that was given to me this year. He worked out great at the Halloween Karaoke gathering at the house but he’s 5 foot tall and the box he came in is only 3 foot tall. He was designed to be pushed down for packing against some strong springs but the locking pins have been misplaced and 10 year old Chinese plastic can become brittle. It would be better to pack him in a bigger box. With his head removed, I needed a 4′ high box.

I made a suitable box 16″ by 16″ by 48″ by reclaiming two 4′ x 8′ political signs (Sorry Ron, I DID vote for you). The box came out great. I cut a picture from the original packing box and taped it to the outside and it’s ready for storage for a year. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to make out of all the other signs.

Apparently, Coroplast sign material is recyclable but it is strangely satisfying to “repurpose” this material directly and custom made Halloween storage boxes is a great application. A new cardboard box for the Rapping Skeleton would be over $5.

If you’re in need of some, grab your diagonal cutters and a pair of work gloves and get some. You’ll be cleaning up your neighborhood while getting some free useful material.

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Building a Freethought Community Part II—the History

Posted on October 18, 2014 by AZAtheist

Tucson has had its freethinking community for quite some time but it consisted of small disassociated groups with small memberships.

Prior to January 2000, small Atheist groups met for Sunday morning breakfasts. There was a used bookstore owned and operated by Conrad Goeringer that hosted meetings in his store. You can still find some of his articles archived on the Tucson Citizen website. Conrad’s bookstore and most of the folks that met for Sunday breakfasts are gone but there is a rapidly growing group of Tucson Atheists with a wide variety of activities.

There was the Tucson Skeptics composed of 4 or 5 members that met occasionally. Its membership consisted of “mature” white men that were interested in investigating claims of the paranormal. Technically the “group” still exists and listed with CSI (Committee for Skeptical Investigation formerly called CSIOP—Committee for Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal) but there is only one member. However, there was an active Skeptical community in Tucson in the past as evidenced by the newsletters that you can find HERE. We owe much of the written history of the activities to Jim Lippard who still writes a blog that can be found HERE. Currently, the most active group in Tucson that deals specifically with Skepticism is the Skeptics of Tucson Meetup.com Group. We meet once a month and discuss various topics associated with Skepticism. The purpose of the group is to create a skeptical environment where it is safe to take on the superstitious, the frauds, and the willfully ignorant. Our meeting on October 13th was on Superstition.

A Humanist group was also in operation. It was a Tucson Community of the Center for Inquiry. This mature group was composed of well-seasoned veterans of the secular community. Their meetings were monthly and on occasion brought in noted speakers such as Paul Kurtz. They’re still around but now go by the name of FreeThought Arizona.

Atheism, Skepticism, and Humanism are the three basic elements of any freethinking community. It seemed that Tucson had it all but the in truth there was no community. The small groups kept to themselves. It was the exact opposite of synergy where the community was NOT greater than the sum of its parts. The parts were still parts. The older folks stayed with older folks. The Skeptics did their “sciency” thing all by themselves and the Atheists enjoyed a nice conversation on Sunday mornings.

The situation is changing. The community is stronger and we’ve come a long way but there is resistance to the change. In future postings, I’ll talk about what is working and what is not and strategies that should have worked but didn’t. I’ll cover the differences between management styles and how they should be applied when dealing with volunteers.

I’ll cover the differences between two organization management styles—the board and the benevolent dictator. There are advantages to each and a tendency to both. Finally, I’ll talk about the development of a third option, the one we are now using in the Tucson Atheists.

Posted in Freethought Community | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Growing a Freethought Community

Posted on October 6, 2014 by AZAtheist

This is the first in a series of short articles about the freethought community in southern Arizona.

From Wikipedia: Freethought or free thought is a philosophical viewpoint which holds that positions regarding truth should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism, rather than authority, tradition, or other dogmas.

It takes work to maintain any community—this is particularly true in the freethought community. Our gatherings don’t start with a recitation of a creed or an appeal to a higher being. Aside from skepticism about the existence of a deity, there is very little that members of a freethought community have in common. Most of us believe strongly that there should be a separation of church and state. Most of us believe that public funds should not be used to advance religion and a large majority believes that the laws that apply to everyone should be based on sound logic and reason and not based on religious beliefs. In addition, the freethought community is diverse. We are young and old, male and female, gay and straight, and racially diverse.

A few years ago, retirement was on the horizon and I became an active part of the Tucson freethinking community. I needed something to replace work—something worthwhile. So I decided to promote, science, reason, and rationality which means Skepticism, Atheism, and Humanism. A couple of years before I retired, I started attending Atheist and Skeptic conferences. Nancy and I went on “skeptical” cruises and we visited the Galapagos Islands with the Humanist group, CFI (Center For Inquiry). We joined other organizations including national and local groups.

There were a couple of small active groups in Tucson in the early 2000s. Tucson Atheists Meetup.com group was founded on February 2nd, 2003 (Ground Hog Day) and Skeptics of Tucson was founded in October of the same year. There was also a Center for Inquiry Community in Southern Arizona that had monthly lectures at various locations. The groups were small met monthly and didn’t talk to each other. Today the landscape is quite different. The groups are larger (except for the CFI group—look for an explanation in a future blog entry) and the community is tighter. However, we still have the same separate groups along with a couple that have been added. We have the Secular Student Alliance at the University of Arizona and a Recovering from Religion Chapter that is especially for people who have just left religion or are thinking of leaving religion.

I’m proud to be a part of the Tucson freethought community and my part in bringing it together to its current state. However, there have been a few bumps along the way. In future postings I’ll cover the history, highlight individual organization, and some of the challenges of bringing such a diverse group together. Overall, the experience was positive and the future looks bright for the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Humanists, and Secularists in Arizona and in particular the Tucson area.

Posted in Atheist Action, Freethought Community | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

This is so wrong!

Posted on September 9, 2014 by AZAtheist

facepalmRecently, I read an article from the Huffington Post that stated that an airman was denied re-enlistment because he lined through the “so help me God” reference in his re-enlistment contract. Fearing that I was being set up by one of those satirical sites, I looked to find a second source for the information and saw a very similar article on the on-line version of the Air Force Times. I’m still a bit skeptical but it appears as if the facts are correct. The Air Force has modified AFI 36-2606 to include the phrase “so help me God.” According to the Air Force Times article, the change occurred October 30, 2013.

As a retired United States Air Force officer, I’ve administered the enlistment oath many times. On one occasion, a U.S. Navy recruiter saw me at the CIA headquarters asked me to administer the oath of enlistment to a young Navy reservist. We stood next to a handy American flag in one of the alcoves, performed the ceremony, and I was off to my meeting. In every case, swearing to God was optional as it should be.

Title 10 of the U.S. Code Section 502, notwithstanding there is in our U.S. Constitution the words, “…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” The oath of the President of the United States, as specified within the Constitution, does not require “so help me God.”

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The spokesman for the Air Force states that there is no option and the airman must state the “so help me God phrase” or leave the Air Force. No one is saying why the rules were changed last October but I’d like to know who is responsible. For the 27 years that I served, this was not a requirement. Now the Air Force is stating that its hands are tied and that it is a “statutory requirement” is a bit ingenuous. The result is that an airman is denied enlistment and must fight the legal battles aided by the AHA and perhaps the ACLU to make things right. Hey! This is BULL SHIT! The Secretary of the Air Force, who will be hearing from me, is also sworn to support the Constitution. Why doesn’t she fight this stupid battle and let the airmen under her command do the job they are dedicated to do? She is responsible for “the affairs of the Department of the Air Force, including organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of it’s more than 690,ooo active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and their families.” Her name is Deborah Lee James and her address is:

Deborah L. James
Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670
 

 Drop her a line. Tell her to fix this for this young Airman and let him do his job. There are many currently serving that are not comfortable swearing to a non-existent deity. Their duty is to their country and to the people they serve with, not an imaginary, celestial sky fairy. Their word is their bond to serve and support the constitution. WHY ARE WE WASTING TIME AND EFFORT ON THESE THINGS THAT WE SETTLED LONG AGO?

Posted in Separation of Church and State, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A High Technology Encounter in Georgia—the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition

Posted on August 9, 2014 by AZAtheist

For the 23rd year in a row, several university teams have come together to do the impossible with autonomous aerial vehicles. This was the first year of “Mission 7” which tasked collegiate teams to build a system that used unmanned air vehicles to avoid moving obstacles and direct free running iRobot Create robots, based on the Roomba floor sweeping models, across a goal line and prevent them from leaving the 20 meter by 20 meter field. A complete description of the contest and the rules can be found at: http://www.aerialroboticscompetition.org/. This is an international competition. The teams that competed in Georgia were from Canada and the U.S. while almost simultaneously there was a separate venue running the competition in China with teams from China, India, Iran, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain. None of the teams successfully completed the mission this year, as expected. The missions created by Rob Michelson are very challenging. Rob’s intent is to have a contest that pushes technology to its extreme limit just beyond the current capability of most of the competition teams.

The contest has always focused on autonomous systems. It is not a contest of the eye hand coordination of the operators but their ability to make a system that can perform the various tasks without human intervention. Of course, there are “operators standing by” with kill mechanisms to bring down the flying vehicles immediately if there is a problem and they have been needed from time to time.

This year the vehicles were required to navigate a 20 meter by 20 meter field in a building where GPS assistance would not be available. The vehicles had to avoid moving obstacles that were as high as 2 meters and interact with free running autonomous robots (iRobot’s Create robots—similar to the Roomba vacuum cleaners). The goal is to herd robots across a green boundary line and prevent the robots from exiting out of the other three sides.

This year one team at the U.S. venue and two teams at the Chinese venue flew completely autonomous. Those three were the only teams that could accrue points in the competition. Autonomy is a fundamental requirement. Even so, the points are meaningless except for bragging rights. No team successfully interacted or changed the trajectory of the free-running robots which means next year everyone is at the same level. The team that successfully herds the most robots across the green boundary while demonstrating intelligent navigation and obstacle avoidance will win the first phase of Mission 7 and be rewarded with a prize of $30,000. Once that happens, the top teams will be invited to compete in the second phase where teams will be pitted against each other in an elimination contest thus demonstrating the ability for autonomous systems to sense and avoid competing robots.

Each year I look forward to spending time with Rob Michelson and his wife Denise, along with their two sons, who I’ve watched grow up from elementary school to college graduates, along with the other judges. I’m especially looking forward to seeing the advances these young people make as they attempt the impossible for the second time. For more information on the contest and the other IARC Missions, please check out http://www.aerialroboticscompetition.org/index.php, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Aerial_Robotics_Competition.

Posted in Science and Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TAM (The Amaz!ng Meeting)

Posted on July 20, 2014 by AZAtheist

This July, the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) put on their 16th TAM (The Amaz!ng Meeting). For us, this was our 8th and it was every bit as enjoyable as the first one we attended in 2007. The theme this year was Skepticism and the Brain. George was once again this year’s very capable and talented master of ceremonies. He kept the talks on time and flowing along with introducing each speaker with an original limerick. While not all of the presentations were thematic, most were. Every year I look forward to TAM and catching up with old friends in Skepticism. This year, many of the friends did not attend but instead there were many “First Tammers” to get to know.

TAM is first and foremost a Skeptical event and Atheism is not a required prerequisite to attend or enjoy the conference. In the past, the organizers consciously decided to distance themselves from Atheistic discussions. This is as wrong as making it all about Atheism. In the world of Skepticism, religion is just another thing to be skeptical about just as UFOs, 911 conspiracies, ghosts, and homeopathy. It is not right to treat it differently and give it special treatment. Skepticism is about critical thinking and is more methodical than positional. Here in Tucson we have a Meetup.com group, Skeptics of Tucson. The end of our mission statement says, “We don’t advocate WHAT to think, just to THINK CRITICALLY.”

The Amazing Meeting is supported in part by Atheistic supporters such as; The American Atheists, The Ardent Atheists Podcast, and Penn Jillette. Other sponsors include: John W. Carson Foundation, Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, Australian Skeptics, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Foundation Beyond Belief, Independent Investigations Group, Institute for Science and Human Values, New York City Skeptics, Secular Coalition for America, Secular Student Alliance, Skeptic Ink Network, and Skeptics Guide to the Universe. Individuals that sponsored this year’s TAM include: Michael Shermer, Barbara Drescher, Edward Clint, Max Maven, Sara E. Mayhew, Greg Stikeleather, Brian Walker, and Toni Van Pelt along with many other supporters.

TAM is one of two conferences that I attend each year. The other one is the American Atheist conference. While I consider attendance at the AA conference part of my job as Regional Director for American Atheists, I attend TAM simply because I want to and I know I’ll have a great time. I enjoy hanging with like-minded Skeptics from literally around the world and there were over 32 countries represented among the 1100 or so attendees.

Our annual trip to Las Vegas and TAM is personally demanding. It has been two weeks since my last posting because it has taken till today for me to muster up enough energy to report on it. After our drive to Vegas, we hit the ground running and don’t stop for the four days of TAM. We don’t leave the South Point Hotel. I get a seat near the front and watch every presentation. That means getting out of bed and to the convention room before most everyone else. I know I’ll be missing out on sleep because the evenings and nights during the convention are also full of activity. At least for the 4 days of TAM, I’ve found that 4 or 5 hours of sleep are enough.

If you missed it or want to see them again, the presentations will available on line and on a DVD but you can see George Hrab’s opening HERE.

The conference ends right after the “Million Dollar Challenge.” This year the applicant believed that he could emit energy from his hand that could be felt by another person. The subjects of the test were screened by the applicant as sufficiently sensitive to feel the energy and there were to be 9 trials. The subject and the testers were double blinded to the testing activity. To meet the challenge, the applicant would be successful in 8 out of 9 attempts. The testing protocol and success criteria were negotiated ahead of time. After two trials and two misses, the challenger failed to demonstrate his power. In the interview after the test, the challenger claims he’ll return to take the test but he’ll have to wait for a full year according the Million Dollar Challenge policies.

On Monday after TAM, we drove home and I conducted a meeting of the Skeptics of Tucson immediately after the drive …then I slept…

If you’re in Tucson, there is no need to wait an entire year to get involved in Skepticism. Check out the multiple activities held each month by the freethinking community in Tucson, especially Skeptics of Tucson.

Posted in Skepticism, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Supreme Failure

Posted on July 6, 2014 by AZAtheist

In the last blog entry, I talked about a Supreme Court decision and gave them the benefit of the doubt. It was a unanimous decision after all and needed the extra attention to find the thread of logic that united the nine disparate judges in their decision to declare the Massachusetts statute unconstitutional. The thread was there and the decision was based on the importance of one of our basic liberties—our freedom of speech. There is no excuse for the June 30th decision to allow the religious convictions of an employer to override the life choices and freedoms of their employees! NO EXCUSE!

In a recent Tucson Weekly article reactions from Ron Barber and Martha McSally are compared. Congressman Barber’s reaction is short and to the point—the decision allows the corporations to trample the rights of its employees. Yes! It doesn’t matter how “sincerely held” a boss’s beliefs are, they don’t have the right to make health decisions for their employees. Republican Martha McSally’s read on the same decision agrees with the court majority (the five male Catholics). Apparently, only SHE has the ability to read and interpret the opinions properly. According to her, she “…actually took the time to read the opinion and my statement here is based on the facts…” I wonder if she took the time to read the dissenting opinion by Justice Ginsburg. It is included in the 95 page .PDF file (on page 60). If you don’t want to read the entire document there are those that have distilled down some of the best passages. Mother Jones produced The 8 Best Lines From Ginsburg’s Dissent on the Hobby Lobby Contraception Decision. Justice Ginsburg points out how the decision to employ contraceptives is not ultimately made by the employer. It is the woman with the help of the woman’s doctor. The employer has no part of the decision even if it is covered in the company’s health care benefits. She also discusses the “mine field” that the Court has willingly stepped into. We won’t have to wait long to see related cases line up for their own particular “religious exemption.” According to the linked article, it only took one day!

Of course, the decision wasn’t decided on constitutional grounds. It was decided based on the requirements of the 1993 RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act). At the heart of this bad decision is the idea that a corporation is defined as a person. It seems there is confusion in the Court about the definition of personhood. The camel got its nose under the tent when the Court decided to apply RFRA to non-profits and allow them to “practice religion” like a person. But even IF you allow that a corporation is a person, the argument that this new type of person gets to tell others how to live their life is a bad one. Also, no matter how “sincerely” you hold your belief, your religious convictions don’t get to trump science and the four contraceptives addressed in this case do not cause abortion no matter how “sincerely” the owners of a craft store believe that they do. That’s just science.

There is so much wrong in this decision I can’t cover it all. Follow some of the links provided for more information on the various arguments. A Supreme Court decision is pretty final and there is no higher appeal but there are still things that can be done. Therefore we should support every effort and every candidate that attempts to abolish RFRA and not support those candidates, like Martha McSally, who support bad Court decisions. Also, when voting consider that Supreme Court candidates are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Past Court decisions made corporations people that can have religious beliefs. This latest decision allows those corporations to dictate our choices in our health decisions. This must stop.

One last thought. Since in the eyes of the Hobby Lobby owners life and personhood begins at conception, shouldn’t they be paying their pregnant employees double time? After all, they now represent two people and they’re both at work.

Posted in Separation of Church and State, Supreme Court Decision | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

In the Buffer Zone

Posted on June 27, 2014 by AZAtheist

Do we have “buffer zones” in our lives? Decisions are coming out of the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of various laws but something can be constitutional and still be a bad idea. The ruling is based on the complaints of street counselors who felt that they have a First Amendment constitutional right to personally talk with and give literature to patients going into a women’s health facility that provides abortion services. While I can agree with the Supreme Court decision on rational grounds, I have to question whether or not it is right that these “street counselors” should be trying to give advice to someone that clearly didn’t ask for it. I hate it when I get unsolicited advice from people, even friends. Is it just me? In fact, I’ve become quite rude about it. If someone calls me on my phone at home offering to sell me anything, I hang up the phone. When people come to my door with a petition, or selling me something, I point to the “No Soliciting” sign and close the door. However, when a young lady is walking into a clinic after making what could be the most difficult decision of her life, how does she “hang up the phone” or “close the door“?

The Supreme Court unanimously struck down a buffer zone law in Massachusetts at abortion clinics. Apparently, they felt that the law was a restriction on the free speech of the anti-abortion “street counselors.” The buffer zone law limited the petitioners’ free speech rights to “counsel” patients arriving at the clinic. There will be plenty of reactions to this decision over the next couple of days and then we’ll move on to other concerns. You’ll hear about the atrocities at abortion clinics that caused the state law makers to impose the law. You’ll also hear crowing from the religious right about their win. Our very own Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) just posted coverage on the decision and, as you might guess, they’re calling it a “victory.” They also posted a very handy link to the Supreme Court opinions. The document is 52 pages long but much of it is repetitive. Before we get too emotionally invested in the back and forth of this issue, we should sit down and take a few minutes to read the Supreme Court’s decision and I thank the CAP for posting the link.

By the way, I saw a headline that said, “CAP President To Matt Lauer: ‘It Isn’t The 1950s Anymore.'” It confused me for a second until I found out that CAP in this case was referring to the Center for American Progress which has a mission almost in direct opposition to the mission of the Center for Arizona Policy. I was impressed with their page on Faith and Progressive Policy: Proud Past, Promising Future. It contains stories where people of faith are working together with others to reduce political tensions between secularists and the religious. I was reminded of the book by our House Representative from AZ District 9, Kyrsten Sinema. The book is Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win and Last
and talks about finding the common goals of diverse groups.

On that note, I recommend reading the Court’s opinion before making a decision on the wisdom of the ruling. There is a lot of discussion about the message content of the buffer zones and the fact that the buffer zones do provide public safety. However, the ruling was made from the point of view and the arguments of the petitioners who were “sidewalk counselors,” not protestors. The free speech rights of the petitioners to converse and distribute hand bills was unnecessarily suspended in the buffer zones since there were other ways to ensure that the clinics remain accessible and safe. In effect, the Supreme Court sent the state legislature back to the drawing board for laws that would provide safety and accessibility without stifling the First Amendment rights of the petitioners. Petitioners believe that they can only accomplish their objective of informing women of various alternatives to abortion through personal, caring, and consensual conversations and the buffer zones prevented them from that.

The Court did not accept that there was no other way to address the problem of providing access and security around women’s health care facilities that provide abortions. They were unconvinced by arguments made by Massachusetts that less restrictive alternatives to the buffer zones were tried and shown to be ineffective.

Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito expressed a concurring but slightly different opinion on the Massachusetts statute. They agree with the opinion of the Court but found that the law should be stricken due to it not being content neutral and opined that it was unnecessary to evaluate whether the law was “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest.”

Indeed, the Freedom of Speech is a very important principle and worth protection. The courts looked at the First Amendment restrictions caused by an overly broad application of law and found the law unconstitutional. The court found that painting a line on the sidewalk may be an easy solution but doesn’t justify its effect on the First Amendment rights of the petitioners. The judgment is in and the buffer zones as defined by the Massachusetts statute are unconstitutional.

I can agree with the logic of the decision. However, it’s not right for these “street counselors” to be harassing young women. There are times I wish we had portable buffer zones. Are anti-harassment laws enough? We have a universal sign that tells the world that we are choking. Do we have one that says, “Help, I’m being harassed!”?

Posted in Supreme Court Decision | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment