Most people have heard of the Bill of Rights. A lot of people could probably recognize the First Amendment if it was read aloud to them. It starts like this: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Right now the shell of the Republican leadership that remains in Congress is trying to push through a bill (S. 3696 and H.R. 2679, also known as the Public Expression of Religion Act, see here for details) that would help to erode this part of the Bill of Rights. What this does is make people who bring Establishment Clause cases pay for their court costs out of pocket. Even if they win, they are not entitled to having their attorney's fees paid for by the person who had violated the establishment clause. We cannot allow this to pass.
This recent diary by Save Ohio Now got only three comments and six recommendations. That’s just not enough, folks. This is a big deal, not just for the minority religions and the non-religious, but for anyone who thinks it is important that we have the right to believe in what we believe in without approval from the federal government.
Update [2006-11-25 11:55:8 by Sidof79]:: Thanks, ben masel.
Attorneys' Fees for winning Civil Rights plaintiffs do not derive from the Constitution. They began with the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s. If the Public Expression of Religion Act passes, this class of Civil Rights actions would be exempted. Since Fees were created by the Congress, and not the Constitution, the congress has the power to remove them from the law. Hence, it must be fought in the Congress.
To help make my point, I’d like to introduce the Smalkowski family.
The Smalkowski family lives in a small Oklahoma town called Hardesty. They are atheists. The oldest daughter in the family played basketball at the public school in town. She refused to participate in pre-game prayers. Because of this, her teammates tormented her, with the encouragement of the coach, sometimes hiding her sneakers so she couldn’t play, sometimes just being verbally abusive. Mr. Smalkowski went to complain to the principal and wound up being charged with a felony after an altercation took place. Mr. Smalkowski did nothing wrong, but he was tried as a dangerous criminal, largely because he is Godless. The following is Mr. Smalkowski’s account of the day the verdict was read. Edwin Kagel is his attorney. The first three attorneys that Mr. Smalkowski hired all refused to take his side, because they believed that prayer should be allowed in school, and didn’t want to fight it.
Note: this story was part of a series that ran in American Atheists magazine. The following appeared in the August 2006 issue of that magazine, and is being reprinted with permission from Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists.
The bailiff took the piece of paper from the foreman of the jury and handed it to the Judge. He opened the paper and while staring at it he nodded. The courtroom was silent and the jury stared straight ahead.
I have been in many situations where my life or limb were on the line but I was still in the game and had a hand to play. But not here; here I just sat waiting for the verdict.
Though I worried about being sent away for five years on bogus charges, my dread was the Christian mob. They knew I must be found guilty in order to slow or stop the civil case being filed in Federal court. Since the start of my daughter’s stand against the public schools disregard for the law of the land, it was imperative to run us out of the county to make any civil action non-valid. With me in jail for five years, running my family out would be a whole lot easier, or so they might have thought.
The courtroom was packed, for it is the Bible belt. There was no love in this courtroom.
The loving Christians brought their children to hear the verdict. They brought the town. They brought ministers. I even saw another Judge in the back of the room. The Judge at an earlier hearing, while slapping an inch-thick stack of papers on his bench, said, “with a list of witnesses this big you had better be a good boy.” It was lies then, it was lies now and the DA knew it!
People prayed openly for a conviction. Many holding their Bibles.
During the trial the prosecution’s side of the courtroom was packed. Only my family and Edwin Kagin’s wife, Helen, sat behind me, but now every seat in the courtroom was filled.
Yet the so-called victim, the 325 lb. victim, the ex-Marine, was nowhere to be found. Neither was the assistant district attorney to be found- whose vindictive, bogus case this was from the start.
What type of place is this? Well this is not the place for a little debate in a coffee shop with the sweet salt air rolling up from the San Francisco bay. This is a place where children write on their schoolbooks, “The South will rise again!” That “black people caused slavery!” Where they burn rock CD’s. That my daughter is gay because only homosexuals vote for Kerry and Christians vote for Bush. Atheists worship Satan!
Where religious fanaticism is fused with political rhetoric and political leaders pander to this madness.
This place has a sickness, a malignant disease and it is spreading. Edwin saw it first hand.
* * *
The judge handed the verdict to the clerk. The only sound was the paper. The paper in the clerk’s hands with the hand-written words that could have spelled my doom; my family’s fate and elicited the inevitable cheers from the Christian mob.
With my guts in my throat and no air to breathe, the court clerk read the decision of the jury.
“We the jury find the defendant:
On the charge of Aggravated Assault and Battery: Not Guilty!
On the charge of Assault and Battery: Not Guilty!
On the charge of Assault: Not Guilty!
On the charge of Battery: Not Guilty!”
Not a word, not a sound. The lynching had been cancelled. I took my first free breath in almost two years. I looked at the jury and mouthed the words, “Thank you.” I gazed at the floor as the floodgates opened. I dared not move my head for fear that others might see. “Charley don’t cry,” but the free air has its effects.
With all their praying, lies, crooked cops, warning that justice better be done, packing the courthouse with their followers, even having a teacher on the jury who had taught at the Hardesty School (our motion to take her off the jury was denied); “Not guilty” was still the outcome. The evidence was too obvious. This was a bad case. And 12 men and women had the guts to speak the truth.
* * *
In a world where superstition is the norm and those who seek another path are ridiculed or worse, being an atheist takes guts. Freedom is never freely given. The good fight is always there.
Oh, you can hide yourself in the latest sitcom or have one or two more scotch-and-waters but the good fight is still there. You can run to your malls and buy yourself crazy with credit card frenzy. But the good fight is still there. You can look away and deny allegiance. But the good fight is still there.
These are the times that try men’s courage.
You can debate till you’re blue in the face. It will not change a damn thing.
Our forefathers are on our side in this fight. Trust me. From Adams to Madison to Jefferson and Paine they all knew the dangers of a Theocracy. They wrote the Constitution to assure it. And within the federal courts we can protect this nation from a Theocracy.
The wall between church and state must stand. But the wall is being battered and cracks now appear. The Christians are at the gate attempting to breach the wall and send us down the road to an age of darkness and fear.
My family and myself are willing to stand and fight the good fight. If we lose some skin, so be it. We have no more else to give. We are financially done. Thanks to American Atheists, Ellen Johnson and Edwin Kagin for the first time we do not fight alone.
Please stand together with us and fight the good fight. The fight that our forefathers began. Lets make the wall so high between Church and State that those who wish to tear it down will know better and be content with staying in their churches. For freedom has never been free!
There can be no freedom for all if the wall does not stand.
The wall must stand.
-Chuck, Nadia, Nicole, Czeslaw, and Bridgette Smalkowski.
I would like to assure you all that the Smalkowskis never met Christians like those who visit DailyKos. If any of you here met someone new, and they said, “I am an atheist,” you would probably shrug, So what? This family was not surrounded by Christians who respect the civil rights of all American citizens. I am lucky to be surrounded here by those who do.
Please help fight the good fight. The Public Expression of Religion Act cannot be made into law.
Update [2006-11-25 10:42:33 by Sidof79]:: For those of you who don't believe this could happen to the Smalkowskis, here is the court link.