Part 10 in an ongoing series about the Nativity Display on City Hall battle here in Berkley, Michigan.
(NOTE: While I am a member of Citizens for Religious Freedom, I am posting this as an individual, NOT as an official representative of the group.)
Many of you are aware of this issue thanks to my last entry a few days ago, "They've sent in the wingnuts", so I'll assume most folks are aware of the situation by now, but just in case you aren't:
THE SHORT VERSION: We're facing a local ballot proposal in less than 30 days which, if passed, would FORCE the city council to build a Nativity display on city hall property. While this sort of issue pops up several times every year somewhere or another in the nation, to my knowledge this is the first time that there's been a city ordinance on the ballot which would specifically REQUIRE church & state to mix in such a fashion.
So, what's happened since our opponents decided to start deliberately* posting nasty, vile attacks on homosexuals, attorneys, athiests and well, anyone who doesn't happen to agree with them (as outlined in my last diary)?
*(ie, these messages were manually added by the webmaster, NOT random comments in an open forum; our opponents specificallly chose to include, endorse and promote these diatribes)
Well, as my title states...
THE GOOD:
--While we were a week later getting our "Vote NO" signs out than our opponents were with their "YES" lawn signs, we spent the whole weekend getting the NO signs out to hundreds of supporters throughout the city. Plus, we were smart enough to include our website URL on our signs, something our opponents foolishly forgot (well, perhaps not so foolish, given the venomous statements that they've included on their site; it might turn off some of their potential supporters...)
--Our successful fundraiser last week received favorable coverage in a local paper, the Royal Oak Mirror (see Oct. 14 link)
--We've received several more donations and many additional supporters (mostly from Berkley, of course)
--One of our spokespeople is scheduled to be interviewed today at 12:35pm EST on the local Christian radio station, WMUZ, 103.5 FM
--By my count, something like 80% of the letters to the editor in the local papers that I've seen so far on the issue have been solid Vote NO suporters :)
--We've published a carefully thought-out legal analysis (written, I should add, by an attorney who is also a current Berkley resident) of just some of the potential legal problems that would likely crop up if the proposal passes (some of these are self-evident, others are less obvious until you think it through).
THE BAD:
--We've already received reports of some of our "Vote NO" lawn signs being stolen, just days after being put up. Until I know more specifics about the numbers involved, I'm going to assume that this sort of thing is fairly common in any hotly-contested race, but it's still unacceptable.
--The "Yes" vote people continue to flat-out lie about the status of the nativity display at the heart of this fuss. Their lawn signs read "Keep Our Nativity" as if it's been destroyed or removed from town, when in fact the display never left town at all, and is still being prominently displayed in the heart of the downtown area...a mere few hundred feet from City Hall anyway!
THE UNKNOWN:
--Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press posted feature articles in yesterday's editions. While our side of the issue was given some coverage in both articles, they both led off with coverage of one of the "Yes" supporters, a former one-term mayor who has decided to run for mayor as a write-in candidate at the last minute, specifically based on this one issue, if you can believe it. Both articles are kind of a wash--they give both sides more exposure, which is either good or bad depending on your POV.
--I understand that the story may have just "crossed the line" into national coverage as well; supposedly both Good Morning America and USA Today did stories on the topic this morning, but I didn't watch GMA and don't see it in the online version of USA Today yet.
Please visit our website at http://www.citizensforreligiousfreed... and help us get Berkley residents to Vote NO on Nov. 6th!
http://www.citizensforreligiousfreed...
http://www.berkleyvoteno.org
UPDATE: There seems to be one point that a LOT of people keep getting confused about: THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL (with one exception) ARE ON OUR SIDE and are AGAINST having the nativity display on city hall property. I cannot stress this point enough.