The war against Halloween
Everyone knows that for years the godless heathens on the left have been waging a war against Christmas, mustering their troops to steal the season from the righteous in an evil attempt to secularize the holy holiday.
When we began the Christmas season this year, we were all very much aware that a war was being waged by the Christmas grinches -- the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and other secularists, to steal Christmas from America. To not only take Christ out of Christmas, but to remove Christmas totally from the American scene. I am happy to announce today that we are winning the Christmas war.
If Jerry Falwell says that the war is being won, well, you better believe it. In fact, it seems that the war against the war against Christmas is going so well that the faithful can now go on the offensive. Over ten people in more than one state have joined together to fight Goth teenagers and others who would dare to celebrate autumn by gorging on candy and dressing up in silly costumes. These brave Christian heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves and their families, quite possibly becoming victims of tricks as they wage the war against Halloween.
Ghosts, goblins and gremlins, get thee behind me. There's no such ghoulish decor at Pam and Bill Malone's house -- just a twinkling angel.
Trick-or-treaters here will get a different sort of goody, too: prayers, a Bible tract, a pe ncil that says, "Smile, God loves you."
Since 1996, the Wesley Chapel couple have been observing Halloween by celebrating their faith -- with anyone who happens by.
"We also give out Krispy Kreme doughnuts and something hot or cold to drink," said Pam, 61. "This gets them to hang around for a while."
The Malones, founders of Pray U.S.A! ministry, call their hallowed alternative Light the Night; it's replicated across the country by dozens of supporters. They pull out the Christmas lights a month early, set up tables stocked with religious trinkets and refreshments, and prepare for prayer.
"There's a lot of evil that goes on Halloween night," said Bill Malone, 65, who traded in a career in sales for ministry. "We want to be just the opposite of that and show peace, joy and love."
Besides, he said, it's the perfect night to evangelize.
"Instead of knocking on people's doors, we stay home and they come to us."
The Malones figure they've ministered to thousands of youngsters and their parents, first in San Francisco, then St. Louis, and now in their Westbrook subdivision. Only once was their offer of a blessing rejected, they said.
"That just tells us that people are hungry, and it's not just for doughnuts," Bill said.
(Ed. note: or maybe, just maybe people are too polite to tell Bill to fuck off.)
In St. Louis, Irma Weber, of Evangelistic Team Concept Ministries, has been lighting up the night since 1999, giving out free notebooks, palm-size books of Bible verses and doughnuts with hot chocolate or cider. She estimates she and her husband get 800 to 1,000 visitors a year.
......Sharon Feliciano, of Granite City, Ill., said she and her husband abandoned tradition and started their own Light the Night three years ago, giving out Twinkies and Bible tracts. They decided it was a welcome alternative to the "ghoulish Halloween production" set up on their neighbor's lawn across the street.
"We had a few Goth-dressed people who backed away from us, but they were teens who shouldn't have been out anyway," she said. "For the most part, everyone loves it."
Goths in the streets?!? What has become of our beloved country? Thank God people like Sharon are around to save us from the evil teens dressed in black. (Some of them even put black polish on their fingernails, and they're known to fornicate outside of marriage!)
Anyway, by seizing control of Halloween and occupying the holiday with an army of Christians, this movement may well hobble the evil that gallops in every fall. Be strong.
Some may consider celebrating Halloween as only a little compromise. However, it is the "little foxes" that spoil the vines and this little compromise can open the door to other evils. Many Christians do not realize that certain traditions that are celebrated in the world have evil origins. Just because our society partakes in certain activities does not make them acceptable for Christians.
Caton crusades to keep kids secure from sticky situations
Recovering masturbaholic and self-appointed moral protector David Caton just can't stop thinking about naked flesh and children.
Activist: Remove titillation from TIA
......The airport is no place for magazines such as Hustler, Genesis and Club with "explicit content that goes far beyond nudity," said Caton in a letter to Hillsborough County Aviation Authority members.
"This is not the kind of product that the government should allow to be sold in an airport," Caton said.
......Airport executive director Louis Miller said the matter has been turned over to attorneys to make sure Host complies with Florida law regarding the display and sale of adult materials. Customers need to be 18 or older, and the magazines are kept behind a counter in cases that conceal their cover photographs.
......But Caton worries that a customer will buy an adult magazine and open it at a gate or on an airplane, subjecting a child or other people to images they don't want to see.
......Board member Ken Anthony said he travels a lot and often stops at the airport newsstands, but has never noticed the adult magazines.
"If somebody sees it, they must really be looking for it," he said.
Heh heh,,, the headline says TITillation...
Palm Beach supports law and order
Palm Beach just passed a buffer law to give women some relief from the American Taliban - domestic terrorists who use violence and intimidation to further their quest for total control over women's personal medical decisions.
City commissioners on Monday approved a law that will prohibit anti-abortion protesters from coming any closer than 20 feet to the driveways of the last remaining Palm Beach County clinic that provides abortions, nearly three months after someone set fire to it.
Planned Parenthood Vice President of Public Policy Helen Reid (center) celebrates outside city hall after West Palm Beach approved the buffer zone Monday.
A related measure passed Monday prohibits "amplified sound" and "unnecessary noise" within 100 feet of the Presidential Women's Center and other medical facilities in the city.
The law takes effect on Oct. 6, meaning that what some call "sidewalk counseling" and others call "terrorism" can take place outside the center for one more Saturday, the busiest day, without the buffer zone.
Jeb! uses state money to stifle choice
His own GOP dominated legislature wouldn't give him the cash for a "Pregnancy Support Services Program," so he snuck in a line item in his office budget for "crisis counseling." As previously noted, the GOP, and especially Jeb!, just don't like democracy.
Gov. Jeb Bush is pushing forward with a $2 million state-sponsored, anti-abortion contract that will include a toll-free hot line directing pregnant women exclusively to local service providers who do not provide abortions.
Bids on the contract must be submitted by 2 p.m. Monday, and are limited to agencies that "adhere to a strict policy of not promoting, referring, or counseling for abortion," according to Bush's request for proposals.
Bush had asked lawmakers for $4 million in the state's health and human services budget to fund the "Pregnancy Support Services Program."
Instead, he wound up with half that amount in his own office budget in a line item called "crisis counseling."
Abortion-rights advocates and opponents, as well as some lawmakers, were unaware the funds were included in the budget when asked about it.
The contract makes Florida one of just a handful of states to use taxpayer dollars to support anti-abortion agencies.
Bush's plan is based on a similar program in Pennsylvania, paid for by the state's Department of Public Welfare and administered by Real Alternatives, a nonprofit organization based in Harrisburg.
......The Florida plan awards a single contractor $2 million to set up the hot line, coordinate with local organizations to provide "information, education, counseling and support services solely to encourage and promote childbirth," and launch a statewide ad campaign publicizing the 800 number.
Abortion-rights proponent Stephanie Grutman of Planned Parenthood said that the $2 million could pay for 55,000 cycles of birth control for low-income women.
"Think about how many unintended pregnancies we could prevent," she said.
Grutman said Planned Parenthood is considering challenging the contract in court.
Christian love
Dr. Dobson's Newsletter: June 2002
Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.
Based on my work with adult homosexuals, I try to avoid the necessity of a long and sometimes painful therapy by encouraging parents, particularly fathers, to affirm their sons' maleness.
BlogWood Redux: Ronda and Ronnie’s world First posted on July 18.
First came the broken bones. Then, the vomiting spells. Then, bruises and scrapes. At first, no one knew who or what kept sending little Ronnie Paris to the hospital. But by the time the 3-year-old died it was clear his life was far too short and none too sweet.
It became even clearer on Wednesday after a forensic pathologist detailed the results of an autopsy on the boy during his father's murder trial. His face scarred and head bruised, signs of abuse were written all over the toddler's body, said Hillsborough County associate medical examiner Dr. Sam Gulino.
"It's my opinion that the injuries that caused his hospitalization on Jan. 22 and eventually his death occurred as a result of blunt head trauma," Gulino said.
Prosecutor Jalal Harb argued Wednesday that the boy's father, Ronnie B. Paris Jr., delivered the fatal blow. Paris, 21, was charged with murder and aggravated child abuse on Feb. 1. Wednesday marked the second full day of testimony in his trial.
Nysheerah Paris didn't say anything about the beatings at first. She didn't want to get in trouble. She wanted something good to happen, for her son to come back, for him to start breathing on his own. She wanted him to be "Little Ronnie" again - his father's first and only son.
But 3-year-old Ronnie Paris didn't come back that day, or the next. Instead, he died Jan. 28 after he was taken off life support at St. Joseph's Hospital.
The boy's death came a week after his father gave him the beating of his life, prosecutors say.
It has been five months since Ronnie B. Paris Jr. was charged with murdering his son. On Tuesday, the boy's mother testified against him in court. She did not remember much about the six weeks she spent with her son after caseworkers moved the boy back to his parents' home from foster care. But she said she remembered the day she saw Paris Jr., 21, beat her son to death.
"Ronnie came in the kitchen. He was upset, and he slammed the baby up against the wall," Nysheerah Paris said.
The next day, the boy was acting strangely, she said.
The couple took him to a friend's house for Bible study. The boy spent most of the day asleep on the couch. They had just ordered pizza for dinner when she noticed something was wrong with her son.
"We was quoting Scriptures and stuff, and I looked over at my baby and saw he wasn't breathing," she said.
Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn't want his son to grow up to be ``a sissy,'' the boy's mother testified Monday.
Others corroborated Nysheerah Paris' testimony as the prosecution built its case during the first day of the capital murder trial of Ronnie Paris Jr., 21, accused of abusing 3-year- old Ronnie Paris until the boy slipped into a coma Jan. 22.
He died six days later with swelling on both sides of his brain.
``He was trying to teach him how to fight,'' said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris' sister. ``He was concerned that the child might be gay.''
Ronnie Paris would shake, wet himself and vomit as his father forced him into a box and repeatedly slapped him on the head in an effort to prevent him from being gay, the child's mother, Nysheerah Paris, testified Monday. The boy was 3 years old when he died from swelling on both sides of the brain on January 28.
......"He didn't want him to be a sissy," Shelton Bostic, the defendant's Bible-study friend, testified.
It really is a very small step from legislating hatred and intolerance to eliminationism and murder.
Ronda Storms attacks Planned Parenthood as “Pro Death,” cuts educational funding
On Thursday, Ronda Storms led the rabid pack of fundamentalist commissioner dogs on a personal attack against one of the few sources for unbiased women's health care in the Tampa area.
The idea came from Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms: eliminate funding for a teen educational program sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
Commissioners went along with her Thursday, while expressing none of their personal feelings about the nonprofit group that supports women's reproductive rights.
But Storms had made her feelings clear in a conversation last week, said Barbara Zdravecky, who oversees Planned Parenthood in 15 counties, including the Tampa Bay area.
Storms supports life - Zdravecky remembers hearing her say - and Planned Parenthood supports death.
"I have to say I was pretty shaken," Zdravecky said. "I'm used to taking hits. But I was surprised at her lack of humanity."
Zdravecky, other nonprofit officials and proponents had just finished lobbying the commission the night of July 21 and were standing around after nearly three hours of budget discussion.
They wanted commissioners to give them $39,500 during the next two years for Source Teen Theater, a $130,000 program in which Tampa teens teach other kids about such topics as sexual activity, drugs, gangs and family violence.
Storms remembers the conversation, too.
She had called for Planned Parenthood's removal from the budget. Zdravecky asked her to reconsider. Surely, Zdravecky asked, the commissioner must support preventing teen pregnancy, even if she doesn't support Planned Parenthood.
"There is nothing you can say or do for me to support you," the commissioner said, according to Storms' version of the conversation. "Thank you very much for your comments."
But Zdravecky pressed on.
"I am prolife and you're not," Storms remembers saying.
Storms thanked them and told them she could not support the request. She even remembers that she smiled at them.
......Zdravecky remembers a more blunt conversation where Storms said, "I am prolife, you are prodeath" twice.
"I believe anyone who professes to be a proponent of Christianity would treat me with more dignity than the way I was treated," Zdravecky said.
......Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Central Florida has been in Hillsborough for at least 25 years and operates a clinic in Temple Terrace. About 95 percent of the 65,000 clients Planned Parenthood sees annually in the region aren't coming for abortion services, Zdravecky said.
......During the budget discussion that led to Thursday's 5-2 vote, Storms didn't comment other than to call for the elimination of the project's funding.
Commissioner Brian Blair spoke at length about how he favored the way the Pregnancy Center of Plant City operated. He said that its crisis pregnancy counselors encourage "the young women to choose life" and that its executive director raises money without asking for county help.
......Castor said that Hillsborough had $8-million to give to nonprofit groups.
"Their request," she said, "was one of the more modest."
Previously, Ronda has suggested that the working poor obtain birth control so that those pesky little babies stop falling out of financially challenged uteri. Now she is responsible for de-funding a program that encourages kids to think and act responsibly.
I honestly think that some stray shards of glass may have migrated north from her scarred and bloody elbows and become lodged firmly in her fundamentally flawed brain.
Storms said she has worked $2.01-an-hour jobs in her life, spent nights at Salvation Army and lived in her car. But she worked and put herself through school, she said, “crawled across glass on my elbows.
BlogWood Redux: SP Council: We like music. Just not this kind of music…
Note: as promised earlier, during the next week or so of light blogging, I’ll be re-posting some stuff that may be relevant to current events. This post first appeared in November 2003. More on this controversy here and here.
November 12th, 2003
SP Council: We like music. Just not this kind of music...
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The City of St. Petersburg was recently appalled at the behavior of an invited guest. See, the City sponsored a concert in Vinoy Park, a waterfront location that has hosted hundreds of amplified music shows in the past, including plenty of loud rock and roll. But this show seemed different somehow and attracted a dark and brooding crowd to Brion Kerlin's hood:
The first thing Brion Kerlin heard was the thump of the bass, so loud it shook the sides of his 34-foot trawler.
But hasn't he heard bass thumps from concerts at Vinoy before? Doesn't sound like a big deal so far. Then came the lyrics. Kerlin is no prude, and he admits using the occasional curse word. But the string of obscenities flowing from the Nov. 2 concert at Vinoy Park offended him. "This concert was way out of bounds by anyone's standards," said Kerlin, 57, who lives on his boat at the city's marina, about a half- mile from the park. "There's no question that everyone could hear this."
Well, it's apparently out of bounds by Mr. Kerlin's standards anyway. Let's see... an outdoor concert on the water... yep, lots of people should be able to hear it alright. But lotsa people can hear artists cursing from that same stage on many weekends each year. Again, what's the big deal? Performing that day was the Urban Car Show tour, featuring rapper 50 Cent. The event was cosponsored by the city of St. Petersburg and drew more than 5,300 people to the park. Like many others that day, Kerlin called the police to complain about the noise and the vulgarity. He was told officers would check into the situation, but neither the music nor the profanities stopped.
Now I think we might be getting somewhere. Instead of a Blues Festival featuring 'authentic' black music as interpreted by middle aged white artists playing to a crowd of middle class white fans, the City had the gall to invite an 'Urban' rapper to play Vinoy, and 5,300 people, most of whom were definitely NOT white and middle class, actually showed up. So, his neighborhood overrun by, ahem, blacks, Kerlin (who sounds a lot likethis guy) and his neighbors called the police for protection from this music that they don't understand. And the police refused to shut the concert down and send those 5,300 interlopers home!
......
Bill Proffitt, a spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department, said officers could do nothing about the vulgarities.
"We see that as a free speech matter," he said.
The city has a noise ordinance, but it can be difficult to enforce. Because the concert was held in the afternoon, police weren't expecting many complaints and didn't have a noise meter to measure decibel levels, Proffitt said.
The department has now decided to equip the supervisor on duty at such events with a meter, Proffitt said. Violating the noise ordinance could result in a 60-day jail sentence and a $500 fine.
So, is the City going to fine itself? More important: will the noise ordinance be enforced at a Jimmy Buffet show, or just for artists who the City sees as possibly troublesome? Council member Virginia Littrell, whose district includes Vinoy Park, also wants to give police the ability to halt performances that feature profanity. She has asked the city's legal department to explore different options. "It wasn't just the music itself," Littrell said. "It was also the language in between the songs." Florida has a vague obscenity law that would be difficult to apply to the words spoken or sung at a concert, City Attorney John Wolfe said. A park is typically considered a public forum, where it would be difficult to restrict freedom of speech. But because the city usually cosponsors these events and fences them off from the rest of the park, Wolfe said an exception could be made. "We're creating something other than a traditional public forum," he said. Wolfe plans to draft an ordinance to present to council members within the next few weeks. Meanwhile, he's also working on a set of standards that could be used when the City Council decides which events it will cosponsor. Wolfe said the goal would be to attract acts appropriate for a "family and tourist" destination.
Here we go. This should certainly cut down on the need to censor and discriminate once the concert has already started. Much more efficient. Local promoter Dave Hundley said the fault really lies with those who allowed the act to perform. "It's 50 Cent," he said. "What were people expecting? This is what the artists do and this is what the people who pay to see them expect." Hundley said cursing is common in many concerts, from rock to hip- hop to punk. And while he's no fan of profanity, and has chastisedbands who swear during all-ages shows, the language can be part of an artist's message. "Even though I may not like what they're doing, it is art. Sometimes it is supposed to shock or to raise eyebrows," he said.
As I said before, lots of people hear cursing from that stage all the time. The strong reaction to this particular event is all about white SP residents' ignorance and fear. Council member Rene Flowers said she was familiar with the acts in the Urban Car Show tour and was afraid there would be problems. She urged her colleagues to be more vigilant when screening acts that will be held in a city park. Said Flowers: "Some things just aren't appropriate to have outside like that."
'Some things,' or Rap Music?
Howard Troxler weighs in with his opinion: (he's alittle kinder and much more understanding than myself)
Dirty words!
At a hip-hop concert!
Who knew?
It came as a terrible shock to the city. Perhaps City Hall had confused the event that it was CO-PRODUCING, an event for which it had eagerly fenced off its own park, with, say, an arts and crafts show, or a Taste Of Someplace-or-Other, or perhaps a nice powerboat race.
#$%^$!
Naturally, the city swang into action after the fact.
"I don't want to create a citywide censor," council member Bill Foster said, meaning precisely, of course, that he wants to create a citywide censor.
"But we do need a mechanism," Foster continued, "where we can cut the power when this type of activity goes on."
(Let us not be distracted by the sudden vision of Foster stationed beneath the stage at future concerts, his hand hovering over the plug, poised to do his civic duty.)
In case you are missin' my drift here, it is not to defend dirty words, but rather to say that if the city didn't want a high-volume, loudly vulgar event in a waterfront park, it could have, you know, not held it.
The right way to deal with this is on the front end. If the city wants to insist on a "family" atmosphere for its co-sponsored park events, it is perfectly within its rights. It risks being namby-pamby, but it can try.
The wrong way is to try to regulate the content of public performers, through ordinance or any other way, even though that is the natural temptation. Even the council's sensible Virginia Littrell, whose district includes the park, raised the possibility of police shutting down the worst offenders.
I am pretty sure she does not mean "Out, out, damned spot."
But that Shakespeare reference leads us to the cultural thing. See, there is vulgarity in outdoor performances all the time, and not just when "urban" (what is that word code for?) performers do it.
Admittedly, the Nov. 2 concert was unprecedented in its duration and vigor. But if the city is going to start getting choosy about who plays in the parks, it had better act in an even-handed fashion. It seems to me to be a nearly impossible job.
There is no sense trying to delineate on the basis of content. The city is not competent to declare that Shakespeare is art and rap music is not. I am not hip to hip-hop, but smart people tell me that it is an artistic reflection of the urban condition, which by necessity includes plenty of aggression, anger, danger. So when an artist includes the word #@#$#% in a song, that's part of the deal.
Fair enough. Who is anybody else to say it isn't valid? After all, the museums are full of paintings of nekkid people, and the playhouses full of their own styles of vulgarity.
Who gets to say that 50 Cent isn't art, but that a play on Broadway titled Urinetown is? Or if you want to stick to music, how about the rock group that had a song in the national Top 10 earlier this year featuring the lyrics, "She (really bad word here) hates me?"
Schiavo case finally dies
Parents insist “Wait! It's not dead yet!”
Funny thing: Jeb! cut short his Maine vacation to return to Florida in order to deal with Hurricane Dennis. He should have been out of town this weekend, but once he came back and saw the news dominated by hurricanes and terrorist bombs, he decided to quietly release a June 30 letter from Bernie McCabe in which the Pinellas Prosecutor recommended that the latest Schiavo investigation cynically ordered by the governor be ended.
Jeb! milked this case for everything he could, and this last bit of investigating was simply a bone he threw to his rabid base. See, he couldn't possibly let Michael Schiavo get on with his life without taking one more cheap shot at him, but like all the other baseless accusations that were hurled Michael's way, the idea that he let his wife lay on the floor for an hour before calling 911 when she first collapsed was laid to rest.
Jeb! put the responsibility for ending the inquiry directly in the lap of McCabe, writing a two sentence letter that Jeb! is hoping will help cover his ass with the wingnuts: "Based on your conclusions, I will follow your recommendation that the inquiry by the state be closed."
See, it's all McCabe's fault that Michael Schiavo was not arrested and tried for something, because we all know how evil Michael is. I mean anyone who would stand by their brain dead spouse for 15 years, battling religious crackpots, in laws, and the state to see to it that the spouse's end of life wishes were carried out must have something to hide , right?!?
Included with McCabe's letter to Bush was a lengthy report by (investigators) Crow and Lewis, in which the prosecutors wrote that this was not the first time McCabe's office had been asked to consider accusations agains (sic) Michael Schiavo. But each time, they wrote, they had ``found insufficient evidence of any prosecutable offense to justify a criminal investigation.''
The prosecutors stated that the 'past decade of increasingly venomous litigation and the family members' disparate and irreconcilable beliefs as to Terri's wishes'' made it ''unrealistic to expect'' that their office could resolve the dispute.
They added that ''despite extended litigation and a detailed autopsy, we have no proof to suggest that a crime has occurred.'' They also noted that Michael Schiavo was not the only witness who has given conflicting testimony as to when events occurred the night Terri Schiavo collapsed.
Governor to close Schiavo inquiry
In a June 30 letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, McCabe suggested ending the state's inquiry into the case.
Bush responded Thursday in a two-sentence letter to McCabe: "Based on your conclusions, I will follow your recommendation that the inquiry by the state be closed."
Bush asked McCabe last month to investigate Schiavo's collapse on the morning of Feb. 25, 1990. He cited questions left unanswered by an autopsy and inconsistent statements from Michael Schiavo about the time he found his wife on the floor of their apartment.
McCabe appointed two of his most seasoned prosecutors to review the evidence. They found nothing to indicate Michael Schiavo hurt his wife.
"I hope this will be the final page in a very, very sad chapter for Florida government," said George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney.
The report, though, will not end the controversy over Schiavo's collapse and the court order to remove her feeding tube, causing her death in March.
David Gibbs III, an attorney for Schiavo's parents, questioned how prosecutors were able to take a new look at the case after only 10 days of work.
"It seems surprisingly quick to us," Gibbs said.
Prosecutors did not speak to Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, during that time. Gibbs said he didn't think that was what Bush expected when he asked for a "fresh look" into the case.
"We were probably expecting a more elaborate investigation into some of these questions," Gibbs said.
Also see: BlogWood Schiavo coverage and Result of the State Attorney's inquiry
Terrorists force closure of last Palm Beach clinic
Federal agents looking into abortion clinic fire
Federal investigators are looking into a fire that damaged an abortion clinic where protesters have staged weekly demonstrations for more than a decade.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined local authorities in investigating the Monday night blaze at the Presidential Women's Clinic.
No one was in the building during the fire and no injuries were reported. There was moderate smoke, fire and water damage, Fire Department spokesman Phil Kaplan said.
It appeared that lighter fluid or a similar accelerant was used to start the blaze, Kaplan said.
Two months ago, authorities investigated an arson attempt at the clinic.
Helen Reid, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast, called on city officials to address the repeated incidents.
"How are they going to protect the citizens of West Palm Beach to make sure anyone who enters any health care facility feels safe? Because the environment in Florida right now has gotten out of hand," Reid said.
The clinic is Palm Beach County's only remaining abortion provider.
"It was an act of terrorism, an act of arson that did a great deal of damage," said Lou Silber, the center's attorney. "This is not going to close us down. We are going to open up as soon as possible and provide women medical services."
As long as the center's doors remain closed, women who have no medical insurance or who need services — such as abortions — that some private doctors won't provide will have to head to Broward County or to Fort Pierce, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathleen Mahoney said.
"Presidential is it," Mahoney said.
"They get referrals from just about everywhere in the state," said Dr. Frank Rodriguez, an OB/GYN who has referred patients to the clinic. "People come from out of state and out of the country to that place because they provide a lot of decent care."
.........Florida has a long history of violence against clinics and those who work in them.
In 2003, Paul Hill was executed for the 1994 murder of a Pensacola doctor and his escort outside a clinic. A year earlier, another Pensacola doctor was murdered. The murders prompted the city to adopt the buffer zone.
In the late 1990s, 10 clinics from Orlando to Miami were the targets of acid attacks in a seven-day stretch.
Happy 4th
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, 'are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Frederick Douglass - What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July 5, 1852