A Judge gets SMART and Rules in Favor of Freedom of Speech

In the spring of 2010 the city of Detroit refused to run Pamela Geller's religious liberty bus ads, which offer help to people wishing to leave Islam safely.

Pamela Geller stated, "Despite the desperate need for resources for Muslims under threat for leaving Islam, the city of Detroit refused to run our freedom campaign on the Dearborn and Detroit buses." 

In May of 2010 her group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, sued the city of Detroit for refusing to post their religious liberty ads.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Detroit's SMART bus system must run Pamela's religious liberty ads which are aimed at helping those living in fear, wishing to leave Islam.

The city of Detroit even violated their own ad guidelines on freedom of speech.  The fear which Islamic supremacy poses to others of different faiths has permeated throughout both Detroit and Dearborn. Here is SMART's first guideline:

"As a governmental agency that receives state and federal funds, SMART is mandated to comply with federal and state laws.  First Amendment free speech rights require that SMART not censor free speech and because of that, SMART is required to provide equal access to advertising on our vehicles." 

CAIR claimed that Pamela's ads were "offensive." An individual or group's claim that something is "offensive' does not give them the right to violate the Constitution by violating person' free speech rights.

'According to the Washington Times, a teacher in Dearborn noted that there was "a climate of fear in the Detroit area's community." The educator explained: "The fear is palpable. I know there are things I am ‘not allowed' to say. A discussion of religion with a Muslim person is often prefaced by the statement, ‘Don't say anything about the Prophet [Muhammad].' In free society, open and honest conversation is not usually begun by a prohibition. Threats and intimidation are just part of life here." ' 

Then SMART accused Pamela's ads of being political.  WOW! Is Islam a political entity?  Are they effectively admitting that Islam is political?  Instead of or in addition to Islam being religiously based?

In their motion, AFDI argued "The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection."

Pamela stated:

"I flew to Detroit to testify in the suit back in July 2010.  David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, who is with the Thomas More Law Center, represented me. I was armed with hundreds of pictures of honor killing victims; the testimony of ex-Muslim teenager Rifqa Bary, whose life was threatened; screenshots of Facebook fatwas on apostates, and the actual death fatwa issued at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most important institution of Islamic law in the Sunni world and the authority that approved the revealing English-language guide to the Sharia (Islamic law) known as Reliance of the Traveller." 


"This was a huge win, not just for us, but for the First Amendment, and a defeat for all those who claim that I am a hater because I am willing to talk about what is wrong in Islam -- including, as in this case, honor killings and fatwas for apostasy. Judge Hood protected free speech and did not take any swipes at my message, which she could have (such as saying, "While we might despise AFDI's message, we must protect it..."). She did not do that. Good for her." 


"I was thrilled, not just for the protection of free speech, but for those living in danger who will be helped by our freedom buses." 


"Those ignored and abandoned people were the ones who really won this victory." 

This is indeed a huge win for the First Amendment.  The Constitution won out, as it should, over Islam's environment of fear in Detroit and Dearborn.

Changing Educational Paradigms Must Include Stopping Unions from Having a Stranglehold on Kids' Education

For the most part, our educational system is a debacle with massive amounts of money being misallocated by school districts. Our tax dollars are going down the tubes.  During the 2002-03 school year $440 billion was used to fund public education for kids from prekindergarten through secondary school.  Unfortunately because of the misappropriation of funds in order to benefit the adults instead of the students the effects of this have produced consequences including:  illiteracy, high secondary school drop out rates in democratically-controlled areas of the United States, and in 2009 results of testing showed that ONLY 60 percent of high school students are proficient in basic science skills .  These aforementioned examples show that it is imperative that we change the educational paradigm in the United States.  One question worth posing is what exactly does the phrase "basic science skills" refer to today?  How basic is "basic"?  The fact that 40 percent of high school students are unable to pass the basic proficiency science test is highly disconcerting and unconscionable.  This is further evidence that our public schools are failing, and the teachers' unions are failing to provide children with a good education. 
The teachers union in Detroit will have nothing to do with compromising their benefits for the sake of either the school children or the city of Detroit.  The unions greedy nature may force the closure of half of the public schools in Detroit.  If the unions, democrats and President Obama actually cared about educating our kids properly they would not have been against the DC Opportunities Scholarship Program (a voucher program), and defunded it. The program was an instant hit, and according to the Dept. of Education it was working. This program in Washington D.C. was helping disadvantaged youths yet those (Democrats and unions) who claim to champion for kids quashed the program which was working.  How dare those happy and successful kids siphon away money from unions (sarcasm). 


Virginia Walden Ford is an advocate for school choice.  As an adolescent her son William started struggling with academics and eventually started getting into trouble with the law.  Then a generous next door neighbor's intervention changed the trajectory of her son's life when he offered to help pay for William to attend a local parochial school. In a matter of only months there was a major transformation: William went from being an angry kid to really enjoying the learning process. After 2 years he transferred to a charter school and graduated as Valedictorian. He enlisted in the Marines, served in Iraq, and is now working for a real estate company in the Washington D.C. area.  After seeing how much a nurturing school enhanced her son's education in the 1990's Virginia became an outspoken advocate for the D.C. vouchers bill. Unfortunately the program was cancelled in 2009 but after the 2010 mid-term elections Ford is hopeful that with the help of Speaker of the House John Boehner the D.C. voucher program will breathe new life soon. 

With all the issues in our educational system it is an absolute necessity that we change the educational paradigm in order to prevent a calamitous outcome for the United States. 




Here are two videos on reforming our educational system. The first video is a trailer for the movie "Kids Aren't cars" and the second video is on changing educational paradigms. 






RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms