Time to Fix Broken Criminal Justice System

July 1st, 2009

By Victoria Middleton
Executive director, ACLU South Carolina national office

We all have a stake in fixing our state’s broken criminal justice system, and this is the time to encourage our representatives to make the streets and schools safer while holding down government growth.

Last weekend, the General Assembly-appointed Sentencing Reform Commission (SRC) held a public retreat in Charleston aimed at coming up with cost-effective strategies for improving public safety. The Pew Center on States has analyzed the fiscal and human cost of the current SC system: one person in 38 is in prison, on probation, or on parole; 6.6 percent of general state funds is allotted to probation; we spend $1 on prisons for every 6 cents spent on probation and parole.

We applaud the SRC’s willingness to listen to outside experts and learn from other states’ best practices. We hope they are open to creative solutions that will increase public safety and make prudent use of taxpayers’ funding.

1) We urge that the SRC become a permanent, standing commission with a broader mandate, one that looks at factors that drive over-population in South Carolina prisons and sends too many non-violent people, including juveniles, to jail.

2) We urge that the funding the State saves by changing our sentencing practices be invested in people – not prisons. Other states have reinvested corrections dollars in communities, especially those where most ex-offenders return, so that these folks can successfully reintegrate into society. These smart investments in people reduce crime and result in more productive, tax-paying citizens.

3) We oppose so-called “truth in sentencing,” which too often means mandatory minimum sentences by another name. Alternatives to incarceration, such as residential drug treatment, intensive community reporting, house arrest, and half-way houses that allow folks to continue working are cheaper and often more effective than time behind bars. They also keep people working and families together so the impact of criminal justice involvement is less grave on the community as a whole. 

4) We also oppose any measures like the “three strikes” rule which have taken away flexibility in sentencing and led to unjust sentences for minor crimes. Under “three strikes” provisions, our prisons are now overflowing with individuals convicted of low level offenses, serving longer and longer sentences at greater and greater cost – with very little benefit for public safety.

Doing nothing will not only guarantee an increase in our prison population, it will increase the number of victims in our communities at an escalating cost to the public. We jail too many non-violent drug offenders, rather than treating them and turning them into productive, tax-paying citizens. We are sending too many children to jail rather than supporting them and their families with intervention that will correct behavioral problems early and keep them in school. To stop the cycle of violence requires imagination and courage as well as good policy.

A remarkable woman demonstrated this recently at a forum co-sponsored by the Community Partnership in Charleston. Vanessa Halyard is an advocate for victims and for abused children who, after her only son was murdered, reached out to the killer’s mother. She took a bold step to break the cycle of violence, because she knows that punishment is not enough.

It requires bold leadership to make real change, and it requires the community to support bold initiatives. We hope the SRC will propose real change, but enacting these reforms will only happen if average citizens care enough.

Victoria Middleton is executive director of the ACLU’s South Carolina national office in Charleston.

Charleston Sanitation Workers Fight for Union Recognition

June 30th, 2009

by Kerry Taylor
Labor Notes

Sanitation workers in Charleston are knocking on doors to drum up support for their battle to gain recognition for Local 1199B, part of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees- AFSCME.

On April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination during a 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, the Charleston workers launched a door-to- door petition drive to raise awareness of their struggle and pressure the City Council to recognize the union.

City officials have offered to meet with any individual worker about their concerns, but maintain that the state’s right-to-work laws prevent them from negotiating with public sector employees. Union supporters counter that no South Carolina law forbids public employees from collectively bargaining.

Workers have complained of abusive supervisors, an ambiguous system of promotions that pits workers against one another, and treacherous working conditions.

One driver was blamed for an incident in which a falling tree branch pinned her in the cab and seriously injured her neck and shoulders. She was rushed back to work, as was a collector whose eyes were burned by chemicals that shot from a paint can as it was being compacted.

Until recently the sanitation workers had hoped to resolve these grievances through discussions with their supervisors. The discussions have provided a few token concessions such as new rain jackets, but little actual relief.

The workers have now concluded that establishing an employees’ organization with democratic rights to negotiate with the city is the only way to win some measure of equality and fairness.

“If you’re a public servant you deserve dignity, respect, and acknowledgment that you’re doing a service for the community,” said Richard Polite, a 12-year sanitation department veteran, who adds that the workers’ demands are not primarily economic but center on basic human rights.

“We’re overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. The people who are in charge of sanitation have got to realize that they’re dealing with human beings.”

While the City Council has the power to grant the union’s request, the decision likely rests with Mayor Joseph P. Riley, who enjoys considerable influence over the Council.

LEARNING FROM THE ‘60s

Since last summer, the workers have been meeting with Mary Moultrie and other leaders of a historic 1969 struggle. Forty years ago, Charleston was the center of a bitter 113-day strike by 400 hospital workers, almost all of them black women.

It drew strong support from Local 1199 and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and many civil rights and union activists viewed the strike as an indication of the potential for joining black power with labor militancy.

“There is more openness in Charleston today. It’s a different city,” acknowledges Moultrie. “But what drew me to the sanitation workers is that the day-to-day grievances are exactly the same as the ones we faced 40 years ago. This petition drive has brought those hidden grievances to the attention of the public.”

Area students and members of Longshoremen (ILA) Local 1422 have joined the workers in collecting more than 4,000 signatures.

“Our reciprocal approach to workers who are organizing is a lesson we learned well during our struggle,” said Leonard Riley of Local 1422 [a member of the SC Progressive Network], which was at the center of a nearly two-year international solidarity campaign to resist union-busting and to free five of its members- the Charleston 5-arrested during a picket line protest.

“We know that we have to be there for any group of workers like the sanitation workers who are doing what they do to earn a living and protect themselves on the job,” he said. “No one does it in this political and economic climate on their own.”

Labor, Community Groups Take Aim at Gov. Sanford’s Real Misdeeds

June 25th, 2009

By Tim Wheeler
People’s Weekly World

South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna DeWitt [and Chair of the South Carolina Progressive Network] quickly brushes aside questions about Gov. Mark Sanford’s tearful admission June 24 that he flew secretly to Argentina for a week-long tryst with a paramour.

His aides put out the story that Sanford, an avid hiker, had gone for a long walk on the Appalachian Trail to clear his mind after losing several bruising fights with the legislature. It turned out to be a lie. Instead he had flown to Buenos Aires pursuing his love affair with an Argentinian woman named “Maria.”

The story is pouring out in sordid detail, including steamy emails between the woman and Sanford, married and the father of four children. There are reports that the Governor, a fiscal barracuda who slashes programs that serve the poor, flew three times to Argentina at State expense. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Sanford, then a member of the House of Representatives, called on Pres. Bill Clinton to resign to restore “moral legitimacy” to the White House. He voted to impeach Clinton.

Yet DeWitt focuses instead on the other source of Sanford’s notoriety: His much publicized rejection of hundreds of millions of dollars in President Obama’s Economic Stimulus funds that South Carolina was to receive. The South Carolina legislature repeatedly overrode the Governor’s vetos of spending bills funded from the economic stimulus and a State Court recently overruled his rejection of the money.

“It’s a sad, sad story from a sad State,” DeWitt told the World in a phone interview from her office in Columbia, the state capital. “The Labor Council gave Sanford a 20 percent rating when he was in Congress. He slept on a futon in his Washington Office. But his door was open to labor. He came to the ILA picnic and brought his wife and kids. She comes from a very wealthy family and has always been his main political adviser.”

Sanford, she charged, “hasn’t been focused on running the State of South Carolina but rather on running for President. All the things he did flowed from his political ambitions.”

She stressed the dire economic crisis that afflicts the Palmetto State. “We needed the money,” she said, referring to the Obama stimulus funds. “Across the board we were looking at 20 percent cuts to our schools, tremendous cuts in healthcare. If he is truly the compassionate conservative he claims to be, those cutbacks would have been important to him but he put his political ambitions ahead of our schools and healthcare.”

His loud rejection of the economic stimulus funds, “was a political ploy. Don’t forget, John McCain invited him out to Arizona to discuss naming him his running mate in last year’s election. Sanford wants to make a name for himself.”

There are other scandalous facts about South Carolina not aired by the corporate media. “South Carolina ranks 50th in the nation in the number of women elected to public office,” DeWitt said. “South Carolina is the only state with no woman in the State Senate. We are always in the top five in the number of women killed by domestic violence. Our unemployment rate is 12.5 percent among the highest in the nation. In some rural counties, it is in the 20 percent to 25 percent range. We have rural counties that are just devastated and they desperately needed that economic stimulus money.”

The South Carolina Progressive Network (SCPN) and the State AFL-CIO organized a rally of nearly 4,000 people April 1 on the steps of the State Capitol to denounce Gov. Sanford’s grandstand play against the stimulus package. The multi-racial crowd held up pink signs with the message, “Pink Slip for Mark Sanford.” Banners proclaimed, “Recall Sanford” and “It’s Our Money: Jobs, Education, Healthcare.”

SCPN Executive Director Brett Bursey told the World he has known Gov. Sanford more than a decade and takes no satisfaction in his personal “tragedy.” But he too stressed that the overriding issue is the plight of hundreds of thousands of unemployed, and poor people in South Carolina as the economic crisis deepens. “We’re tops in the nation in unemployment,” he said. “Its over 12 percent. There were going to be severe cuts in services — critical services — even with the economic stimulus package, including severe teacher layoffs.”

SCPN, the AFL-CIO, and other allies responded by mobilizing the biggest protest demonstration to demand the stimulus funds of any state in the South.

Some in South Carolina believe Sanford cannot survive and will be forced to resign. He has already stepped down as Chairman of the National Republican Governors Association. Once considered a presidential contender, he joins U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. on the GOP’s lengthening roster of disgraced and discredited might-have-been GOP presidential candidates.

Stop Sen. Jim DeMint

June 22nd, 2009

By Ryan Wilson

SC Pride

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina released this letter addressed to Pastors and Religious Leaders on official US Senate letterhead. I mean I know I live in South Carolina, but seriously? I expected better! He talks about the separation of church and state which I feel he blatantly violates by sending this very letter.

Ironically, I wrote to the Senator just last week asking for his support of the Uniting American Families act and telling my story as a person in a bi-national relationship who’s partner is currently struggling with immigration in-equality. Guess I can be pretty certain I won’t have his vote.

This week South Carolina was a buzz with LGBT activity. Thursday the Sean Kennedy of Greenville, who would have no doubt been at the front of the Upstate Pride parade. Instead his still grieving mother Elke was forced to march in his place, knowing Sean’s murderer is set to be released in September, having served only 1 year for killing her son after calling him a “f*g”. Hate Crimes do happen, and people like myself, people like Sean, need the protection that the Matthew Shepard Act can provide and resources our local police departments need to investigate these crimes when they do happen.

So, Senator DeMint, it is not the Hate Crime bill or the LGBT Movement in South Carolina that needs to be stopped. We stand for progress; for equality. We stand for family values (all families, not just some). We stand for acceptance and tolerance. It is you, Sen. DeMint, who needs to be stopped! Stop quoting biased research by, of all places, the Family Research Council. Stop telling lies about the Matthew Shepard Act. Stop telling lies about LGBT persons. Stop telling lies about me!

Network Members Recognized in Q-Notes

June 18th, 2009

Q-Notes recently featured its readers’ picks for the best LGBT activists, services and organizations in the Carolinas, and several members of the SC Progressive Network made the cut (in bold below). Congratulations to the winners!

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Local/Regional: Columbia

Best LGBT non-profit
Winner: Impact Columbia
Runner-up: South Carolina Pride Movement

Best LGBT young adult leader (under 30)
Winner: Santi Thompson
Runner-up: Ryan Wilson

Best LGBT leader (Male)
Winner: John Dawkins
Runner-up: Ed Madden

Best LGBT leader (Female)
Winner: Beth Sherouse
Runners-up: Harriet Hancock, Nekki Shutt

Best LGBT-affirming faith institution
Winner: Garden of Grace United Church of Christ
Runner-up: Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia

Results compiled by Q-Notes staff from qualified online ballots collected April 3-May 13.

To see the full list, click here.

Diebold Voting Machines Should Give Us Pause

June 17th, 2009

Tragedy, Hope and the Media’s Abuse of Power

June 16th, 2009

By NOW President Kim Gandy

The news lately has been a roller coaster of extremes — shifting between hope and injustice, success and tragedy, gain and loss. The only consistent aspect is the major role the media play in telling these stories, and the abuse of their power to shape the news.

The murder of Dr. George Tiller has altered the foundation of security in women’s reproductive health care. Dr. Tiller dedicated his life to providing full reproductive health care for women, including safe and legal later abortions, in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. He did this despite the environment of hostility and menace that surrounded him, brewed up by the radical right. The outpouring of grief and appreciation seen at the many vigils and memorial ceremonies was a testimony to Tiller’s dedication to women’s reproductive rights and the momentous impact he had on the lives of women everywhere.

He was not unaware of the danger: Tiller wore Kevlar to work, drove a bullet-proof car, and had previously been shot in both arms by another anti-abortion terrorist. Still, Dr. Tiller knew that as one of the incredibly few providers of later abortions in the U.S., he played a crucial role in the lives of the women he served. The walls of his clinic were literally covered with letters from grateful patients.

At the good news end of the spectrum, on May 26 President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice. Not only would Sotomayor be the third woman to ever sit on the high court, but she would also be the first Hispanic. Sotomayor’s landmark nomination reflects a much needed step forward for representation of women and people of color in the three branches of government.

Read the rest of this entry »

Got PRIDE?

June 11th, 2009

By Ryan Wilson

SC Pride

 

This month marks the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in NYC that are seen by many as the turning point in what has become our movement for LGBT Equality. As we celebrate Stonewall and the 1st SC Pride march almost 20 years ago, we thank the pioneers both nationally and locally who have paved the way for us to live freely and relatively free from discrimination here in South Carolina.

 

Yet the work is not done! I encourage you to get involved, get active, get Proud and do something for the LGBT community this month. There are so many different ways!

 

Happy PRIDE Month from all of us at SC Pride Movement & the Harriet Hancock Center

 

News & Upcoming events:

 

The Rocky Horror Show: Pride Style - June 18th - LAST CHANCE TO GET TICKETS!

 

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SC Pride 2009 – Next Committee Meeting – June 14 @ 2pm - WE NEED HELP!

 

4th Annual SC Black Pride – June 18-21: Columbia

 

1st Annual Upstate Pride March – June 20: Spartanburg

 

Meet the South’s Coolest 8 Year Old

June 10th, 2009

By Scot Quaranda

Campaign Director, Dogwood Alliance

A couple weeks ago, I ventured down to Charlotte, NC, to meet Cole Rasenberger, a happy, well-rounded eight year old with a serious passion for protecting forests.  I wanted to briefly share his story with you and invite you to join him in taking action to protect the wildlife and forests of our region.

Cole contacted me in March asking how he could help protect North Carolina’s coastal forests.  By the tone of his email I assumed he was in high school and so I sent him materials that I thought would be appropriate and talked with him about our fast food campaign.

A few short weeks later he informed me that he had received permission from his principal to get postcards signed by the kids at his school and developed an action plan that made him sound like a veteran organizer.  It was also at this time that I received a “secret” email from Cole’s mom (pictured here with part of the team) letting me know that he is eight years old and really excited about this project.  That blew me away!

By Earth Week, Cole had drawn four beautiful postcards, crafted a message to fast food corporate executives and recruited 24 friends to help him with the project.  Over a three day period, Cole and his team stormed the school, doing presentations in every class, and got over 2,000 postcards signed to the fast food companies.  The message was clear to the companies, “please be a leader for environmental change and protect our forests for my generation.”

Help Cole help protect our forests by taking action and asking fast food executives to use less packaging and more recycled paper in their packaging.

Every now and again something so inspiring comes along that you have to share it with the world and hope that it not only makes you smile but encourages you to do your part to help make this world a better place.  I hope you will join Dogwood Alliance in helping make Cole’s dreams for a better world for his and future generations come true!

How Crowded is that SC Closet?

June 8th, 2009

By Charlie Smith

Charleston, SC

The blogosphere is ablaze this week with pseudo-amazement that Andre Bauer, Glenn McConnell and Lindsey Graham might be gay. While we’re expressing our indignation/stirring the media pot on this subject, maybe we should just call up Nancy Grace and declare open season on all suspected closet cases. Then maybe we can get this outing thing over with once and for all…starting at the top. Jesus, for example, a confirmed bachelor at 33, was known to host at least one dinner party with twelve unattached men. Wouldn’t a straight man have done lunch at the club? But then Jesus never said a negative word about gay people, so maybe we should reconsider his case.

The only reason that anybody cares about the sexuality of Andre, Glenn and Lindsey is that everybody knows what jackasses they have been on every issue that has negatively affected the lives of LGBT South Carolinians in recent years. In other words, if these elected officials truly are gay, everybody knows that they will then richly deserve whatever comeuppance they get. These rumors are not new. Anybody who can perform a Google search will discover that Ketner’s comments are less than Earth-shattering. (See  “Seven Minutes In Gay Hell” published in September 2007 by The Charleston City Paper)

Hopefully one day soon South Carolinians will realize the true harm they inflict on themselves when they elect and re-elect gay-bashing closet cases to public office. An elected official who has to waste time fortifying his closet to stay in power is by definition giving less than his or her full attention to the real problems of our state…not to mention being a sorry example of leadership. Linda Ketner’s point was that honesty and integrity are essential to both the public and private life of those who seek to serve our citizens.

Ketner has been open and honest about every aspect of her life and because of that she has been able to profoundly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians…including yours and mine. If Andre, Glenn and Lindsey have something to hide, then they and others like them have made their own political beds by attacking gay people at every opportunity. If they are hiding something, they deserve whatever political retribution they get.

How a Late-Term Abortion Saved My Life

June 5th, 2009

By Cecily Kellogg

Last Sunday morning, a man walked into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and shot to death Dr. George Tiller. Dr. Tiller was volunteering as an usher that Sunday, so he was standing in the lobby of the church when the gunman entered. Unfortunately, Dr. Tiller’s death didn’t really come as a surprise; his medical practice centered on performing abortions, particularly late term abortions, and he’d been attacked before. Regardless of the near constant threats and harassment he received, Dr. Tiller was committed to his work. Why? Because he believed that “abortion is a matter of survival for women.”

It was for me. In October of 2004, I was pregnant with my sons Nicholas and Zachary. With great joy and expectation, my husband, my best friend, and I visited my doctor for a normal growth ultrasound. I was nearly 23 weeks pregnant, hovering at the start of the third trimester. Within moments it was clear something was wrong; one of the boys was still and had no heartbeat. When I met with my doctor, routine screening revealed the worst: the symptoms I’d been experiencing that I thought were normal with a twin pregnancy were actually evidence that I was sick — very, very sick. I was immediately admitted to the hospital with severe preeclampsia, and though my doctors tried mightily to slow the progression of the disease, by the morning of October 27, 2004, a group of doctors stood at my bedside and delivered the worst news I’d ever received.

I was in advanced kidney failure. My blood pressure was skyrocketing, and it could not be controlled with medications. My liver was beginning to decline. The horrific headache I was experiencing could no longer be treated with pain medications because they were afraid it would depress my ability to breathe when I began to have the seizures they expected at any moment. I would soon likely suffer a stroke or a heart attack. In other words, I was going to die unless the pregnancy was terminated. Immediately.

There was no hope for my surviving son. He was too tiny and too frail to be viable. With my dangerously high blood pressure, a c-section would have likely caused me to bleed to death, and inducing labor would have stressed my system too much. My safest option was the procedure known as an intact dilation and extraction. It would save my life, and preserve my future fertility. As luck would have it, my obstetrician happened to be one of three doctors in the Philadelphia area that was both trained and willing to do the procedure. Within an hour of receiving my bad news, I lay in the surgical suite, covered in tubes and wires, weeping inconsolably as the doctors tried to offer comfort as they prepped me for surgery.

It was the worst day of my life.

After I came home from the hospital, grieving, I searched and found other women like me — women whose lives were saved by the late-term medical termination of a pregnancy. I also met women who chose to spare their children from agonizing health conditions and birth defects by having an abortion. What I learned is that we are rare; only 1.1 percent of all abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy (according to the Guttmacher Institute), and doctors only perform them in cases of extreme medical need. Dr. Tiller himself never performed a late term abortion without counseling the parents — and getting a second opinion from another doctor. My doctor described the day of my surgery as the worst in his professional career.

With the help of other women like me, I grieved. I healed. I tried again, and in June of 2006, my wild and fierce daughter Victoria was born. As I healed, I came to realize how lucky I was. Yes, I said lucky. This was in 2004, before the Partial Birth Abortion Ban became law, and my doctors were able to move quickly to save my life without worrying about breaking the law. My doctor knew the procedure and was willing to perform it; something that has already become rare and will be rarer still if doctors have to put their lives on the line to perform this life saving medical procedure. If it’s you or your daughter, will you be so lucky?

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Kellogg is a freelance writer living near Philadelphia. She has blogged about her experience at www.uppercasewoman.com.

This article was provided by the American Forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization that provides the media with the views of state experts on major public concerns in order to stimulate informed discussion. 

Broadband deal getting more study

June 4th, 2009

Sides debating how to allocate broadcast capacity

By GINA SMITH
The State

A panel of lawmakers says it needs more time to study a proposal to bring WiMax, the latest in wireless broadband, to the Palmetto State.

Wednesday, the Joint Bond Review Committee sent to subcommittee a plan to lease ETV’s excess broadcast capacity to private companies, Clearwire and Digital Bridge Communications.

A contentious part of the proposal lets the state recapture 20 percent of the excess capacity if it’s needed in the future for yet-to-be-determined law enforcement, school or governmental needs.

Some lawmakers and residents say the state should hang on to more of the capacity. Others think the capacity could be worth more money.

“It sounds to me like we may be selling ourselves a bit cheap,” said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

The S.C. Progressive Network said lawmakers should designate some of the capacity for free Internet for K-12 students and reduced-rate Internet for residents.

Members of a legislatively appointed study committee say they’ve negotiated the best possible deal for the state.

The companies will pay nearly $143 million to the state over 30 years. The companies would build WiMax networks, offering S.C. residents, businesses and others wireless Internet and, eventually, other uses, like interactive tools.

It would take 18 months to build a network, according to Clearwire.

The debate comes at a time when Clearwire is facing legal troubles.

Customers in four states, including North Carolina, are suing Clearwire, alleging the company is misrepresenting the reliability of its network and is unfairly charging early termination fees.

Clearwire is upgrading its network from an early version of WiMax to mobile WiMax.

Clearwire representatives have said South Carolina would get the mobile WiMax version.

It’s unclear how soon the subcommittee will report back. The State Budget and Control Board has the final say.

Death of Dr. George Tiller “incalculable loss”

June 1st, 2009

Statement from Sharon Camp, Guttmacher Institute president and CEO

The Guttmacher Institute joins the reproductive health community in expressing our shock and sadness at the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas physician who dedicated his life to providing abortion care to women in need—including later-term abortions to women in the most difficult of circumstances. Dr. Tiller did so despite decades of harassment, vandalism, threats and violent attacks by antiabortion activists.

The number of U.S. abortion providers has been declining for many years; as a result, a growing number of women have difficulty obtaining abortion services in a timely manner. The overwhelming majority of abortion providers offer services in the first trimester, when nearly 90% of abortions occur. But at later gestations—when abortions due to fetal anomalies and threats to a woman’s health or life are more common—only 2% of all abortion providers offer the procedure, leaving women in need of later term abortions with very few safe, legal options.

The death of Dr. Tiller is a senseless tragedy. Dr. Tiller risked his life on a daily basis to ensure that women had access to safe, legal reproductive health services. For the women he helped over the years, as well as those who will now have nowhere else to turn, this is an incalculable loss.

“Murderer Tiller” stirs activist passion

June 1st, 2009

While the most visible “pro-life” organizations have publicly denounced yesterday’s murder of Dr. George Tiller, the tragedy has unleashed a torrent of eye-for-an-eye comments on blogs that is chilling.

Columbia Christians for Life issued the following press release. Feel free to contact the organization’s director, Steve Lefemine, whose information is included at the end.

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May 31, 2009

Today a mass murderer was killed by another murderer. George Tiller should have been brought to justice a long time ago, tried for his many crimes of murder, and upon a verdict of guilty for his thousands of counts of murder, executed for his crimes. However, the use of force of arms in the manner employed today by Tiller’s murderer, cannot be justified. It must be condemned.

America has failed to ESTABLISH JUSTICE in law for pre-birth human beings for over 36 years, and so Murderer Tiller was never arrested for the charge of murder, and, through due process of law, tried, sentenced, and executed for his thousands of capital crimes.

If a State/US Congress would statutorily establish legal personhood at fertilization without exceptions, JUSTICE (not just Regulation) would be ESTABLISHED, and the Murder of 3,000 Children Per Day in the Wombs of the Mothers in that State/America would END.

America has become a nation of bloodshed. In over 36 years, over 50 Million children have been murdered in America by surgical abortion alone, let alone probably multiple times that number by chemical abortion, including birth control pills, which are both contraceptive and abortifacient. 

Today America continues to murder over 1 Million children every year, over 3,000 PER DAY by surgical abortion. The land is polluted with innocent blood (Genesis 4:10, Numbers 35:33, Proverbs 6:16,17, 2 Kings 24:1-4) and God is bringing His Divine Judgement upon America.

Part of that Divine Judgement is the oppressive creeping socialism, fascism and marxism of the Obama administration (Psalm 106:37-44). It will not be surprising if the Obama administration uses this incident to unleash a backlash upon pro-lifers. We have already seen how CFR-member Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security Dept. tried to paint all of us who oppose the murder of innocent children in the womb as right-wing extremists.

The Bible records that God said to the wicked people of Israel in Hosea’s day:

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” Hosea 4:1, KJB

Or, bloodshed follows bloodshed. The bloodshed in the womb for over 36 years has been followed by bloodshed on our streets, in homes, in workplaces, in schools, and in churches. America has become a nation of bloodshed.

And again, God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel:

“Therefore, as I live, saith the LORD GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.” Ezekiel 35:6, KJB

America has not hated the bloodshed of pre-birth innocent human beings, and so as a Divine Judgement, bloodshed is pursuing us.

Over 140 years ago, over 620,000 Americans died in the War Between Americans. God judged America for her national sin of American slavery. Today God is judging America for the national sin of child-murder-by-abortion. 9-11, the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Katrina, the Illegal Immigrant Invasion, and the Financial and Economic Crisis are all manifestations of this ongoing and increasing Divine Judgement. More and greater Divine Judgement is coming upon America for the national sin of child-murder-by-abortion unless we repent.

The response of Christians in America to today’s murder of mass murderer George Tiller should be to fall on our faces before Godand ask God’s forgiveness for our CORPORATE BLOODGUILT (e.g., Deut. 21:1-9) and for failing to love and obey God enough to love our unborn neighbors as we love ourselves more than we have for decades. It is the shedding of innocent blood of 3,000 children a day that is bringing God’s Wrath upon America. The wicked, pro-abortion, pro-sodomite, pro-NWO Obama Presidency and Adminstration is an instrument in God’s Hand to bring upon that Judgement, just as Nebuchadnezzar was an instrument of God’s Judgement upon Judah in 605 BC (2 Kings 24:1-4) and the years following, until Judah’s utter destruction in 586 BC.

When Christians have truly repented, will we not see numbers of Christians on their faces outside the 700+ death camps in America, crying out to God for mercy upon our land to stop the killing ???

I pray so.

When Christians have truly repented, will we not see more Christians demanding their legislators pass Personhood legislation to ESTABLISH JUSTICE for the pre-born to END ABORTION, and not just perennially find new ways to REGULATE MURDER (parental consent, informed consent, clinic regulation, 24 hour wait, ultrasound bills, ad nauseam…) ???

I pray so. 

When Christians love our unborn neighbors as we love ourselves, the American Holocaust will end.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – God’s remedy for America to be healed is for we who are CHRISTIANS to REPENT !

“If My people [Christians], which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways [sins of commission and omission]; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land [America, or any nation].”  2 Chronicles 7:14, KJB

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Steve Lefemine, pro-life missionary
dir., Columbia Christians for Life
PO Box 50358, Columbia, SC
(803) 794-6273
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Teens and Sex: Is the Internet Accurate?

May 30th, 2009

Below the Belt: A Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

We live in a society obsessed with sex. Our relationship with sex, however, is conflicted and more than a little dysfunctional. Mixed messages abound. Popular culture and various institutions both glorify and demonize sex. And much of this is played out via the female body.

As young women attempt to navigate the sexual minefield laid out by the patriarchy, they need information that won’t steer them wrong. The stakes are high — unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, a life forever altered, a future interrupted. So how do they get good information?

Enter the Internet — perhaps the most awesome research tool ever. With all that information at our fingertips and theirs, some of it’s bound to be wrong, right? Right. In fact, new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital demonstrates that health websites often provide teens with factually-challenged and incomplete information about sex and sexuality.

Heading up the study was Dr. Sophia Yen, a specialist in adolescent medicine at Packard Children’s Hospital, a clinical instructor of pediatrics at Stanford, and a longtime NOW supporter and advocate (not entirely relevant, but I have to brag).

Yen warns: “Teens should be cautious about finding sexual health answers on the Web. . . . Even widely trusted sites like WebMD are not that accurate when it comes to adolescent reproductive health.”

In a review of 35 popular health websites, Yen and her team identified the top six sexual health myths lurking online. These myths are the result of websites leaving out key pieces of information altogether, or simply failing to update their sites to reflect changes in knowledge or clinical recommendations.

Two of the myths involve emergency contraception (EC). A number of websites had not been updated to indicate that, as of August 2006, women 18 and older could purchase EC without a prescription in the U.S., and additionally that minors can buy EC directly from authorized pharmacists in nine states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state). Within weeks of the release of Yen’s study, the FDA lowered the EC non-prescription age to 17, further underscoring the need for health websites to stay on top of such developments.

In addition, 29 percent of the sites neglected to note that EC does not cause an abortion if the woman is already pregnant when she takes it, and is not the same thing as RU-486, the early abortion pill. This is a common misconception that reproductive health sites would be wise to correct.

Sixty percent of the sites incorrectly stated that birth control pills can cause weight gain, even though recent research has shown that this is not true with modern oral contraceptives. And how many people know that IUDs are a safe form of birth control for adolescents? Not nearly enough, I’m sure, since only a fraction of websites providing information about IUDs even mention their use by adolescents, and several wrongly state that only women who have given birth should use IUDs.

While online information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) was relatively accurate, less than half delivered the news that some STIs, such as Herpes, can be contracted through skin-to-skin contact or kissing. Finally, the study found that many sites had not updated guidelines for age and circumstances of first recommended pap test.

The prevalence of inaccurate information on trusted health websites is particularly alarming given other recent reports. Last year I wrote about a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study estimating that one out of every four teenage girls — 3.2 million young women — “has at least one of the most common sexually transmitted infections.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, after a decade of declining teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates, the birth rate for teens has risen for the past two years.

Surely misinformation is to blame, at least in part, for this troubling reversal. After all, we’ve just come out of eight years of aggressive funding for abstinence-only education programs (thanks, George W. Bush), which proved to be ineffective and riddled with falsehoods. President Obama has removed much of this funding from his 2010 budget, but abstinence-only proponents are working hard to maintain their funding in Congress.

And don’t get me started on crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which present a “compassionate” front to women who think they may be pregnant, but really exist to prevent women from obtaining or even considering abortion. Deception, misinformation, propaganda and shame are the tools of their trade. According to Legal Momentum, “CPCs are increasingly receiving federal and state funding for these activities — with dangerous consequences for women’s health and wellbeing. . . . the largest source of government funding for CPCs is federal abstinence-only program grants. This funding has brought inexperienced CPC employees and volunteers into schools to teach abstinence-only programs, replacing trained sexual health educators who had provided comprehensive sexual education.” Not to mention all of those “Choose Life” license plates that funnel money to these same groups.

Let’s face it, teens are curious about sex — sexual imagery is everywhere, and their hormones are surging. They want to know about sex, and many of them will engage in sex, whether or not their parents or some representative on Capitol Hill thinks they’re ready for it. To those who prefer that teens be unprepared to protect their reproductive health, who think that girls who dare to have sex should be punished with STIs or unplanned pregnancies, your reign will soon be over.

Let’s give girls and women full authority over their reproductive lives and the information to make sound choices about their sexual health. The iconic 1989 art piece by Barbara Kruger declared: “Your body is a battleground.” How satisfying it would be to see that come to an end at last.