Showdown at city hall council meeting; score one for religious right{or-should we?}

So, lately there has been a battle in my city for a local "Youth For Christ" to build yet another "home" for the less fortunate called "U-Turn 3" in a certain area of town, they want the land for $1 and a five year tax freeze.There was a meeting held a couple weeks ago in the City Hall, which YFC supporters packed and the local gov't had to basically admit that it was'nt fair to the opposition,etc. So last night there was another meeting, this time in the city councillors chambers, and supporters and opposers packed the room{more supporters though; again it was stacked against us, I believe it was set up that way}. I signed up to give a delagation/presentation, I did this last Friday. I got in. But I noticed that even though I was likely one of the last to sign up they put me third on the list of like twenty delegations, right after the first two which were reps of YFC{well the first was, the second were representing the U-Turn project, I say "were" because the second was 3 people}.The City gov't and the Mayor know me well{as they should, they have seen all my letters to the paper and also the Mayor has had to deal with me on a personal level and because I exposed the Fundies meeting to worship in his office, which created a huge controversy in my city, the local paper just kept it going too, hehehe!}

So, I think they knew what the expect from me and set me up on purpose! What they did was despicable, right before my delegation they got into this big discussion about not saying anything about those whom would use this "U-turn" facility because it would violate human rights code,etc. They implied those downtrodden whom would use it, not the evangelical christian organization itself , but they still used it against me. Each delegation gets 10 minutes, mine was about 8-9 minutes{I recited it at home before going} I was stopped dead in my tracks after about 1-2 minutes and forced to leave the stand, the Mayor invoked the "human rights" crap.I'm not going to type my entitre presentation because it's too long and I did'nt get to go over it all anyways, but what I will do is type the first couple paragraphs that I did get through.:

[QUOTE]:My name is Bill Baker, I reside in/around the area that YFC wishes to build their U-Turn 3 project in.First, thank you for giving me this opportunity to give this presentation, it's appreciated. I respresent sections of citizens whom are marginilized,ignored, and even prejudicely demonized for our views; the Faithless{not just Athiests and Agnostics, but other rationalists as well, such as Deists,Pantheists,Universists,Secular Humanists and more} as well as many marginilized religions such as liberal.moderate faithists, Neo-Pagans, Satanists, and others. I will not lie, I am self-appointed here.These people I represent{many of whom have come up to me and given me kudos for my recent battles with the religious right in Brandon} many of them are either too timid to speak up{here I was stopped and forced to skip to the next paragapraph}I/we take issue with projects such as "U-Turn 3"{and the others} as we believe{w/evidences} that their main purpose is not so-called "charity" but rather subversive prosalatyzing{and in some cases-blatant prosalatyzing}. I've years experience with YFC and evangelical christianity as I was one of their culture, what I say I say not from prejudice but from knowledge and experience{AGAIN I WAS STOPPED, AND WAS FORCED TO SKIP AHEAD A COUPLE PAGES INTO MY PRESENTATION; SO I ABANDONED WHAT I WROTE AND AD-LIBBED]. Yes, why should I or any other taxpayer whom may not agree with the archaic and dangerous moral prejudices of these people{ie:masturbation and homosexuality are evil,etc} and their disprovable pseudo-sciences{ie creationism, literal 6 day creation several thousand years ago, and their opposition to evolution,etc}and archaic fear-based theologies, which WILL be either subversevely prosalatyzed{or even blatantly in some cases} to the needy,downtroden, and the un/misinformed; why should I/we be forced to pay either directly or indavertently throught the gov't fundings or the fact that we have to pay full taxes while they get a tax freeze for their prosalatyzing efforts.{HERE I PARAPHRASE WHAT I SAID BECAUSE I DON'T RECALL IT WORD FOR WORD; IT WAS PRETTY MUCH HERE THAT THEY STOPPED ME AGAIN].[HERE IS WHERE I WAS FORCED TO STEP DOWN].[UNQUOTE]

So, one of my supporters left pissed off, another stuck around with me but was pissed as hell, even more than I was{LoL!}.Anyways, I stuck around and after a few presentaions I interjected between one and another with this to the Mayor and those present: "You speak of 'Human Rights'; what about the human rights of the faithless taxpayer or the homosexual taxpayer, what about the human rights of the gay whom will be told by evangelicals like YFC how sinful they are for beeing what they are, how about the human rights{by this point the Mayor was banging his gavel and someone was trying to escort me out} of the religious groups the Mayor discriminated against back in June;pagans,satanists,freethinkers, you remember that Mayor{he showed utter discrimination against them, violated their human rights w/his prejudices, you know it, it was said to me personally and then modified and said in the "Brandon Sun"}, this is a travesty, it's hypocrisy!" By now I was beeing escorted from the chambers and the Mayor was banging his gavel and telling me I was out of order{bloody hypocrite!}.

I hung out in the halls with a friend for awhile, and spoke loudly with him about the hypocrisy going on and laughing at it all,and paced around a bit. After this I walked past the open doors and shouted "SO MUCH FOR FREE SPEECH!" and walked out of the building{my friend said something into the room too,I'm not sure what,but I think it was actually more offensive than what I said}.

Aaaanyways,in todays Paper of our city called the "Brandon Sun", they have a article on it all- "U-TURN APPROVED" and explain that the council approved of it 7 against 2.as far as how many presenters were for or against, 21 for/ 13 against.I will not post the entire article, but only a few relevant parts.

[QUOTE]"after twice deferring the decision, city council finally voted late last night to approve a Youth For Christ proposal to build an apt block during a lengthy and sometimes heated special meeting that saw one man ejected frm council chambers."

"Marnie McGregor, general manager of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, told council that it was unfair to give tax breaks on the proposed YFC apt block because three of the 12 units would be rented on the open market, 'How would it be fair to give one landlord an advantage that is not avaliable to other landlords in the city?" she said."

"Throughout the meeting, speakers were often confused about what exactly they were allowed to say. The mayor repeatedly said that discussion about the people who would use the proposed U-turn facility was forbidden, because it might constitue a violation under the human rights code and make councils decision subject to a human rights challenge; he said speakers would only be allowed to comment on the city's sale of the land for $1 and a proposed tax forgivness. That rule was was somewhat inconsistently applied,however, with the Mayor cutting off some speakers and allowing others to proceed in their comments about the benefits or drawbacks of U-Turn facilities and their residents; the city clerk even pointed out one instance of the Mayor violating his own rule".

"One man,Bill Baker, was ejected from the meeting after he refused to stop speaking despite requests from the Mayor". Baker objected to what he described as an intolerant attitude among YFC employees towards non-christians, and said public money should'nt be spent on an organization that holds such views.'So Much for Free Speech' he shouted as he left the building"[UNQUOTE]

That last paragraph was also the last paragaraph of the article{probably for dramatic effect,LoL!!!}.Anyways, I just sent a letter to the editor about the metting today, hopefully it might get publushed, we shall see I suppose.Here is that letter.

[QUOTE]Once again another so-called fair meeting at the City Hall in regards YFC'S "U-Turn" project{Sept 7th}. But again the cards were stacked against the opposers of this proposal, and especially against the marginalized faithless freethinkers,Pagans, and liberal/moderate faithists whom also happen to be demonically decieved according to evangelical Christianity. I was stopped dead in my tracks barely a couple minutes into my presentation{I'd say about a minute and a half, for a guess} . They would not allow me to go forward because first I explained in full detail the segments of society I represented and because of what I had to say{it's taboo to speak against absolutist monotheistic faiths, but not so against other marginilized religions and also faithless philosophies}. I tried to explain why I thought it was unethical to keep throwing charity into faith-based organizations hands and to expect the taxpayer{via the gov't we pay} whom may not agree w/the archaic moral prejudices of evangelical groups{ie:masturbation evil, homosexuality evil,evolution-evil, pagan religions-evil,etc}as well as their disproven pseudo-sciences{ie:creationism according to orthodox intrpretation of Bible,etc} and their fear-based theologies of a loving god that will send good people to hell simply for not following the right religion,etc. I had other things to say, but I was forced to cut through most of it and get to the end of my presentaion and why I as a tax payer should not be forced to inadvertantly help such people of unreason to subversevely shovel their unreason onto the needy and often ignorant masses of society. I do think we need organizations like these to help these people get ahead in life, these oppressed people, but at the same time-not absolutist/fundy/evangelical/faith based, disguising their prosalatyzing as "charity' and "positive lifestyles"{yeah- one based on the ignorances,prejudices, fear/guilt,etc of evangelical christianity}. I speak not from PREjudice, but expereince and knowledge of this faith-having spent most of my life as one of them. Now, the Mayor kept appealing to "human rights" stuff. What got me ejected from the room all together was when I spoke up after listening to a few presentations and said to him and everyone present- "You speak of 'Human Rights'; what about the human rights of the faithless taxpayer or the homosexual taxpayer, what about the human rights of the gay whom will be told by evangelicals like YFC how sinful they are for beeing what they are, how about the human rights{by this point the Mayor was banging his gavel and someone was trying to escort me out} of the religious groups the Mayor discriminated against back in June;Pagans,Satanists, faithless freethinkers, you remember that Mayor{he showed utter discrimination against them, violated their human rights w/his prejudices, you know it, it was said to me personally and then modified and said in the "Brandon Sun"}, this is a travesty, it's hypocrisy!" By now I was out of the room. Sad, because we all know the favoritism that the Mayor and much of the local gov't has towards evangelicals/fundamentalists, we've seen fundies meet in the Mayors office for worship, we've seen city reps sent to evangelical so-called "business" meetings in the U.S. on the citys/taxpayers dime{when many of us don't share those theological archaic moral and spiritual prejudices of theirs}, we've seen the mayor solicit donations for evangelical groups,etc.
What happenned last night was just another shred of evidence that the evangelical/fundamentalist christian community has more than it's fair share of wealth,power,influence, and favoritism showered towards it, and that the gov't is sleeping w/the church. We should become part of the theocratic states of America! The mayor, whom does'nt know jack about human rights and equality, kept invoking it when it suited him. For shame! So, he can be intolerant towards religions he knows nothing about, but someone like myself cannot speak about a so-called larger religion that I have years experience with? What absurdity! When will this stop?
How about the gov't take responsibility for the poor and downtrodden that it has forced into that position in the first place-instead of shovelling them into the hands of evangelicals all the time?
Now, not all those at YFC are intolerant, not "all" evangelicals are either; but these organizations as a whole and this segment of the christian faith as a whole disguises their intolerance in love rhetoric and seeks the opportunity to turn the world into a bunch of ignorant creationist,monogamous heterosexual,anti-homosexuality,anti-pagan,anti-freethought/reason/facts, Orthodox Christian fools whom fear beeing sent to hell by a loving god so much that they can't see the forest for the trees.

Enough is enough!
I call all the faithless, all the pagans, all the moderate christians, the gay community,etc, to join me in this fight against this subtle tyranny{as opposed to simply secretly giving me kudos when they see around or in the paper}-I cannot fight for you on my own, join me. Stand up for yourselves! My email is westman@universist.com, I encourage you to contact me.

I have no doubt YFC are sincere about their wanting to prosalatyze those archaic,prejudiced,disprovable,ancient moral vlaues and theologies and pseudo-science to the downtrodden, I also believe many of them truly do care as individuals too, but that is no excuse to take advantage of the needy like that{and of the gov't and taxpayer}.

Frankly, if they want this they should get the MANY,many churches and well off evangelical/fundies around this city to pay for their own prosalatyzation of the bad news of damnation and all beeing worthless crap unless they serve a disproven deity.

Our gov't should be ashamed for fornicating with the evangelical wrong...er..right!

Thank you and "so much for free speech Mayor, so much for 'human rights'.

Bill Baker

Brandon
[UNQUOTE]

One of the worst things was that ALL presenters addreses were on the meeting itenerary sheet for all the public to see, which I thought was disgusting. I went to the City Hall today and told them that "If I receive any harrasment or criminal activity against me because of the views I've expressed and the fact that people got to see my address, I will hold those whom added our addresses to the sheet and did'nt inform the presenters before hands that their addresses would be on the public sheet, I will hold them and the Mayor responsible, and I hope anyone else whom may be harrased or have crime commited against them because of this will too".

Hahahaaa!!!Wow, what a showdown!
And friends, there is more to come. There is a revolution brewing against the elite absolutist faithless subverting our democracies. I for one will keep up the good fight of reason against unreason, friends join me and all the others like me, together we can make this a more fair,equal,just,raitonal, truly tolerant, ethical, democratic society and future world.
As Thomas Paine{U.S. founding Father,Patriot, and famous Deist} once Said- "There is no greater weapon against errors of any kind than REASON, I have never used and other and I trust I never shall"; let that be one of our motto's.

In the meantime, please visit my other sites/blogs "Day of Reason"- http://day-of-reason.blogspot.com/ {which is a blog to promote a worldwide "Day of Reason" which I decided to promote after the U.S. freethinkers decided to do a "National day of reason" as a response to a U.S. and International move for a "National day of prayer" and "Global Day of Praper"} and Raving Madman- http://raving-madman.blogspot.com/

Also in the meantime, please check out the Universist movement{a religious/philosophical movement of faithless freethinkers ranging from Atheists,Agnostics,Deists,Pantheists,Trancendentalists,etc} based out of Birmingham,Alabama,U.S., which has become a global phenomena in under two years; http://www.universist.org/ http://www.faithless.org/

In Reason:
The very irreverand Bill Baker