Judy Baar Topinka discussed with me, on Sunday, what she would do regarding payments on unconstitutional grants of tax dollars to houses of worship, parochial schools and religious ministries, if she were to be elected as the next Comptroller of the State of Illinois.

Judy told me that it would be up to the Attorney General to decide if the grants were constitutional and, if the Attorney General affirmed the constitutionality of the grants, she would pay them.

While her answer sounds reasonable, that's not the way it works in State Government.

Judy Baar Topinka will announce, at a campaign rally, today, that she is a candidate for the Republican nomination for Illinois State Comptroller.  I will be there to ask her what her position is on a very important facet of that job.

What would a Comptroller Topinka do if she is asked to pay on the blantantly and unambiguously unconstitutional grants to religious organizations that are contained in the notorious Capital Bill?  Would she pay them, or refuse to do so the way that Dan Hynes refused to pay on the unconstitutional grant of one million of our tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church?

What would a Comptroller Topinka do if similar grants are authorized by a future Illinois Governor, the Capital Development Board, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity or the Illinois General Assembly?

I'll let you know what her answer is, or if she ducks and refuses to answer, in a follow-up report.  That report will now be published on Wednesday.

Topinka is a former Illinois State Treasurer and has been a talk show host for several years on AM 1530 WJJG, where I did the Morning Drive Show and worked from 2001 to 2007.

Overshadowed Productions, a Christian missionary theater production company, has asked for a grant of $450,000 from the Village of Itasca, a suburb of Chicago located three miles west of O'Hare International Airport in Dupage County, on the east side of Interstate 290 at Thorndale Avenue.

At this week's Itasca Village Board meeting, Overshadowed president Reba Hervas, who attended Bob Jones University and who is the wife of Itasca Village Attorney Charles Hervas, asked that her Christian ministry be given the tax dollars to assist them with the cost of purchasing a permanent home in the village.

According to their web site, Overshadowed's purpose is "to point the way to Christ" and their mission is to provide "drama that is overshadowed by the truth and power of God and His Word, the Bible."

The money Mrs. Hervas requested would come from taxes that the Village has collected from guests staying in Itasca hotels.  The hotel tax money, however, is intended to be used to promote tourism, not Christianity, in Itasca.

The Bolingbrook Babbler, "Bolingbrook's first and only true tabloid," has published the amazing account of a debate, which supposedly took place earlier today, between a prominent Chicago-area atheist and a space alien who is a Christian.

The article, by Babbler editor William Brinkman, is entitled Atheist Rob Sherman debates Space Pope!  Web exclusive.

The "Clow UFO Base" mentioned in the story is a reference to Clow International Airport, a general aviation airport in Bolingbrook, a suburb located 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.  The "Flying Sherman Object" mentioned in the story apparently is a reference to the Flying Sherman-ator, pictured above.

I thought that the story was funny.  I hope that you enjoy it, too.

State Rep. Suzi Bassi R-54. Photo from General Assembly web site, www.ilga.gov.

The Regional Transportation Authority ("RTA") is demanding that the Illinois General Assembly (state legislature) terminate free rides for seniors, as reported in this story in the Chicago Tribune, because the program is costing the RTA tens of millions of dollars each year that they don't have.

House Bill 4654, which would take away free rides from seniors, was introduced on October 15, 2009, by State Representative Suzi Bassi, a Republican from the Palatine area.

I say that the free rides for seniors program should be kept going, for four very important reasons, and pay for it with the tens of millions of dollars that the Illinois General Assembly has unconstitutionally granted to religious organizations.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed her long-awaited Brief of the Appellant with the 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals in the Illinois Student Prayer Act mandatory public school "Moment of Silence" case.  This is the case in which my daughter, Dawn Sherman, successfully sued to stop Buffalo Grove High School from wasting her time, each morning, by making her stand around and do nothing, during instructional time paid for by the taxpayers, when Dawn wanted to be studying and learning.

The Appeals Brief is 63 pages long, so it's going to take me a little while to read it before I give you my initial impressions on it.  My attorney for the Moment of Silence litigation, Richard Grossman, gets even longer to say what he thinks.  He gets 30 days to file his Reply Brief with the Appellate Court on Dawn's behalf.

The State of Illinois has cancelled the Grant Agreement to donate 1,000,000 tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church.  The money was intended to pay for part of the cost of rebuilding a church with a predominately African American congregation, located on the South Side of Chicago, after it was destroyed by a fire in January, 2006.  Ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich had promised the money to the church, a week after the fire, as a way to pander for Black votes during his campaign for re-election leading up to the March, 2006, Primary Election.

All that's left of Pilgrim Baptist Church, 3301 S. Indiana, Chicago, are the front and side walls, which are supported by scaffolding. Photo by Rob Sherman.

I filed suit in State Court to block the grant, just days after the Grant Agreement was signed, citing Article Ten, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution, which unambiguously states, in pertinent part, "No grant of money shall ever be made by the State to any church."  Section 11-301 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (the body of State laws that governs how State courts operate) permits any citizen to file suit "to restrain and enjoin the disbursement of public funds by any officer or officers of the State government."

Handling the litigation for me was attorney Richard Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois Governor in both the 2006 and the 2010 election.

The highly regarded Buffalo Grove Village Board of Trustees did a lot of things right, Monday night.  They listened to the concerns about flaws in their proposed Recall ordinance expressed by about a dozen speakers, including me, from the audience of close to 200 residents, and took those concerns very seriously.  Village President Elliott Hartstein persuaded the Board to postpone the effective date of the proposed ordinance to no earlier than January 1st, so that there would not be an immediate rush to try to get a referendum to recall an elected official on the February, 2010, Primary Election ballot, since referendum questions need to be placed on the ballot 65 days before an election.  Village Attorney William Raysa directed the Board to delete from the proposed ordinance the provision that would ban recalled officials from holding public office in the village for four years, which addressed the concern that I raised to the Board that it's unconstitutional to have an election in which the community is allowed to vote to cancel a person's civil rights, without cause.  Most importantly, Trustee Beverly Sussman succeeded in persuading the rest of the Village Board that, in any recall, a reason for the recall needs to be stated on the Notice of Recall and the Recall Petitions.  This addressed the other main concern that I raised with the Board, which was that, without a reason, Recall referendum questions could be placed on the ballot without cause -- purely for the politcal purpose of reversing the results of an election to get rid of a political opponent -- thus resulting in defensive Recall campaigns to get three other elected officials on the recall ballot before they got you on the ballot, since the Illinois Election Code law on Submitting Public Questions limits to three the number of referendum questions that can appear on the ballot in any one election.

The ugly, destructive campaign to be able to screw your political enemies before your political enemies screw you, resumes at 7:30 p.m., Monday night (October 5, 2009), at the upcoming Buffalo Grove Village Board meeting (agenda).

The Board of Trustees will consider adopting this Recall Ordinance, which would allow residents to seek to oust up to three elected officials at any regularly scheduled election.  Election law limits to three the number of referendum questions that can appear on the ballot at any one election.

Unfortunately, there are members of the Village Board who seek to use lawyer tricks to undo the results of the fair election that was held, earlier this year, at which time Lisa Stone was elected to be a Village Trustee.  The Recall Ordinance would allow the target of the ordinance, Trustee Stone, or any other elected officials, such as the main backers of the Recall Ordinance, to be ousted purely for political reasons, as no justification, such as misconduct, is required to place a recall referendum on the ballot.

Buffalo Grove Village Attorney William Raysa has directed the Village Board of Trustees to discontinue consideration of a proposal that would ban recalled elected officials from running for public office, within the village, or being appointed to office with the village, for a period of four years from the time of the Recall vote.

This decision by Mr. Raysa came as a direct result of my presentation to the Village Board at their last Village Board meeting, on September 21, 2009, at which time I suggested that there were serious constitutional questions about whether somebody, particularly somebody who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, could have any of their civil rights canceled simply by a majority vote of the community at a referendum.

Mr. Raysa is expected to explain his decision on this matter at the next Village Board meeting, which is on Monday, October 5, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., at Buffalo Grove Village Hall.  That's when a newly revised proposed Recall ordinance will be on the agenda.

I first raised concern about the four-year ban in an entry in Godless in Chicago, entitled Buffalo Grove Village Board to consider Recall ordinance tonight, which was posted on September 21, 2009. 

Over one hundred confident and enthusiastic supporters jammed into the party room of the Globe Pub in the 1900 block of West Irving Park Road, last night, to see and hear Illinois Green Party candidate for Governor Richard Whitney and candidate for 5th Congressional District   Matt Reichel.

Whitney presented a credible, populist campaign platform, which he called "the ideas of the majority."  Reichel was polished and competent in his presentation, in which he said that we need to change Barack's message of "Yes we can" to Matt's message of "Yes we will."

America's First Family of Atheism, Madalyn Murray O'Hair (seated), Jon Garth Murray and Robin Murray O'Hair. Photo from the American Atheists web site, www.atheists.org

Americans are abandoning religion in record numbers, while at the same time, the number of godless is multiplying dramatically.  This news comes from independent sources, religious groups and secular organizations.

 

An Associated Press story published earlier this week reported that organized religion is experiencing unprecedented losses of membership and donations, while the number of people with no religion is increasing rapidly.  In fact, the web address for the Chicago Tribune version of the AP story included the words, "religion meltdown."

All this comes on top of this  desperate report.pdf by the Church Communication Network that up to 94% of teens leave church after high school.

What's really behind this surge of rationality in America?  Is it the recession, as the AP story suggests, or something else?  More likely, the latter.

For those of you who have been following me on twitter, my new twitter account name is GodlessNChicago.  The Rob_Sherman twitter account is closed.  Here is the link to the new account: twitter.

I also now have accounts at MySpace and Facebook.

The Buffalo Grove Village Board of Trustees is engaged in a nasty, all-out battle to enact a Recall Ordinance, for the purpose of being able to get rid of recently elected Village Trustee Lisa Stone, who is wearing the white sweater in the picture, below.

Trustee Stone is an independent voice who dares to vigorously call into question Village Board policies and proposals that she feels are not in the best interest of the citizens of Buffalo Grove.  The other trustees aren't used to that level of dissent, so they want to get rid of her, for that reason and because Lisa's dynamic personality clashes with the sedate personalities of everybody else on the team.

The smiling faces of the Buffalo Grove Village President, Board of Trustees, Village Clerk and Village Manager, from a happier time.

What the proposed Recall Ordinance provides for, is a means for removing from office, via a referendum, any village elected official.  The elected officials are the Village President, the Village Trustees and the Village Clerk -- everybody pictured above except the Village Manager.  If the circulators of a recall petition were to obtain the signatures of a certain minimum number of registered voters, the Village Board would place on the ballot, at the next election, a referendum, asking if a particular elected official should be both removed from office and barred from running for election, again, for the next four years.

After reviewing every aspect of the proposed ordinance and doing extensive research, I found that the proposed ordinance violates the United States Constitution, the Illinois Constitution and the Illinois Election Code, which is the set of state laws from the Illinois Compiled Statutes that govern elections.

Concerned about where candidates for governor stand on the issues of state/church separation and the civil rights of godless people like us?  This is a good week to meet with, in the Chicago area, candidates for Illinois governor and lieutenant governor and ask them, yourself, for answers on these issues and any other issue you like that is important to you.

Here is how you can meet four of the candidates, this week:

Richard Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Governor, will be meeting with prospective voters at 7:00 p.m. this Wednesday, September 30th, at the Globe Pub, 1934 W. Irving Park in Chicago.  That's a half block east of Damen Avenue and a block west of the CTA   Brown Line   Irving Park station.  Also at the event will be Matt Reichel, Green Party candidate for Congress for the 5th Congressional District of Illinois.

While this event is a fund-raiser, anybody who mentions Rob Sherman or Godless in Chicago will be allowed in for free.  Then, if you like what you hear and you decide that you want to support either or both of these fine candidates, you can contribute to their campaigns and decide whether or not to join the Green Party.

The Illinois Supreme Court got it right, yesterday, when they ruled that a person has a right to limit who can inherit one's money, on the basis of religion.

The case the court ruled on, as reported in this Chicago Tribune story, involved Erla and Max Feinberg.  Max, a Jewish dentist, wrote a will that provided that his estate would go to his wife, which is usual and customary.  Upon his wife's death, his substantial wealth would go to his five grandchildren.  However, Max put a clause in his will that said that any grandchild who married outside of the faith would be dis-inherited.

Apparently, four of the five grandchildren married gentiles, a big no-no in Jewish tradition.

One of the five grandchildren felt that it was unfair to be dis-inherited for marrying Goy, so she sued.  And lost.

Leave it up to those Republican lawyers to find new ways to try to undo elections and, at the same time, cancel the civil rights of citizens, all without cause.

The Buffalo Grove Village Board will consider the adoption of a Village elected official Recall Ordinance, tonight (Monday, September 21, 2009).  The primary sponsor of the ordinance is Village Trustee Jeffrey Berman, a lawyer and a Republican.  Village trustees run in non-partisan municipal elections, but Trustee Berman has been active in Republican Party politics.

I will be there, tonight, to oppose the ordinance.  If you've ever wanted to see me in action as a social justice advocate, tonight's the night.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m., at Buffalo Grove Village Hall, located on the north side of Lake-Cook County Line Road at Raupp Boulevard.  Raupp is located 2.5 miles east of Route 53, one mile east of Arlington Heights Road, a half mile west of Route 83, 2.5 miles west of Milwaukee Avenue and 5 miles west of the Tri-State (I-294).

The recall ordinance would allow voters to reverse the results of municipal elections for trustees, the Village President and the Village Clerk, without cause.  This is a really bad idea, for numerous reasons.

News, today, that three teens got ejected from a minor league baseball game in New Jersey for refusing to stand up for God Bless America reminds me that this is the second anniversary of the week when my daughter, Dawn, got God banned from homecoming at Buffalo Grove High School in 2007.

It shows you the difference that can happen when you have a Sherman or two in the community.

Two years ago, Buffalo Grove High School officials had proposed, to the Student Council, the inclusion of the prayer, God Bless America, in the group of songs that would be played over the sound system in the hallways, between periods, during Homecoming week.  The school administrator who spoke to the Student Council then asked if there were any objections or concerns regarding any of the songs.

Dawn, a newly enrolled Freshman (the school year had just begun) and member of the Student Council, objected to GBA on the grounds that the song was not secular.

One of the other members of the Student Council responded by asking, "What does secular mean?"

This time, the real Dan Hynes showed up, and he was great.

In my previous post about Dan, I expressed concern that Dan was a puppet of his handlers at his campaign kick-off news conference, vague and evasive, and was like a kid being dragged around by Mommy and Daddy.  I said that I hoped that this was a one-time fluke.

It was.

At the Buffalo Grove Days Parade, last Sunday, Dan was back to being his normal, competent, progressive self.  No handlers!  It was just Dan and me, talking about the urgent issues that are facing the State of Illinois, with several dozens campaign supporters, nearby, who marched with him once the parade got going.

Dan's answers were direct, specific and knowledgeable.

Judge Peter Flynn, of the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, has issued a ruling in my Driver's Education Fee lawsuit.

That's the case in which I challenged, in behalf of my daughter, Dawn, the $350 fee that Buffalo Grove High School and School District 214 charges for its Driver's Education Behind-the-Wheel class.  (The classroom portion of Driver's Ed is free.)

Dawn and I challenged the amount of the fee because the $350 charge is used mostly to cover the salary and benefits of Driver's Ed teachers.

Article X, Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution, says, in pertinent part:

"Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free."

The Illinois Supreme Court, in E. L. Segar v. The Board of Education of the School District of the City of Rockford, 371 Ill. 418, 148 N.E. 289, decided on June 18, 1925, prohibits the public school districts from charging students for staffing costs.  In that case, the Illinois Supreme Court said, in pertinent part: 

"A system of schools which permits all persons of school age residing in the district to attend classes and receive instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge, provides free schools, and the fact that the parents of pupils financially able to do so are required to provide their children with text-books, writing materials and other supplies required for the personal use of such pupils does not change the character of the school."

Dan Hynes refused to be specific, at his news conference, this morning (Wednesday, September 2, 2009), about what he would do about the hundreds of grants to religious organizations that are contained in the Capital Bill and that amount to tens of millions of dollars.

Hynes announced that one of the key planks in his campaign platform was to eliminate 625 million dollars of discretionary grants, each year.  See Page 9 of his campaign platform.

I asked Hynes if the cuts would include the blatantly unconstitutional grants to houses of worship, parochial schools and religious ministries that have made the Capital Bill "Pilgrim Baptist on steroids."

A series of new State taxes to support houses of worship, parochial schools and religious ministries go into effect today (Tuesday, September 1, 2009).

Saint Martin de Porres Roman Catholic Church, 5112 West Washington Boulevard, Chicago, where State Representative LaShawn Ford is on the Finance Council. A provision on page 342 of the Capital Bill, at Article 10, Section 1805, forces taxpayers to donate $140,000 to Representative Ford's church for "general infrastructure."

These unconstitutional taxes are part of the legislative package surrounding the 996-page Capital Bill, which was sponsored by Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan.

The new tax revenue will not be distributed equally to all churches, religious schools and ministries.  Rather, the General Assembly has designated a preference for specific religious organizations, while excluding all others entirely.

The new taxes, on such things as candy, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, violates Article I, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution, which states, in pertinent part, that "No person shall be required to ... support any ministry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination..."

The taxes also violate Article X, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution, which states, in pertinent part, that the General Assembly shall never "make any appropriation or pay from any public fund, whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support any school [that is] controlled by any church; nor shall any grant of money ever be made by the State to any church."

The mainstream media talks about how the taxes will pay for such things as roads, bridges and schools, but nowhere, other than here, are you informed that a substantial portion of the new taxes go to pay for infrastructure at religious facilities.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today (Monday, August 31st) granted the request of Assistant Illinois Attorney General Rachel Murphy for an extension of time to file her appellate brief in the Student Prayer Act "Moment of Silence" case.

The Appellate Court ordered that the due date for Rachel's brief is changed from September 8th to Thursday, October 8, 2009.  The reply brief from my side is due thirty days later, on Monday, November 9, 2009.  Rachel's response, if any, to our reply is due fourteen days later, on Monday, November 23, 2009.

Here is an actual copy of the Court Order:  Granted090831.pdf

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"Drew" left a comment, yesterday (Sunday, August 30th), in which he complained that it seemed unfair that parents who send their kid(s) to private school are paying twice, and that parochial schools "give a better return on the money."

There are a market basket of public services that are available to citizens.  Those services include public housing, public feeding ("food stamps"), public transportation ("transit"), public education, public liibraries, public parks and public health care (Medicare and Medi-caid).

Almost everybody uses some of those public service, but nobody uses all of those public services, if you can afford not to.  However, there is no refund or discount for those public services that you choose to not use.

Many people have asked me, "So, what's the big deal, if the General Assembly gives millions of dollars to parochial schools, even if the State Constitution does prohibit such a thing?"

The big deal is that the State Legislature is cutting a huge amount of money from essential public school programs, such as textbooks, to pay for it.

I've told you, in previous blog posts, about how the Springfield Capital Bill is donating millions of your tax dollars to parochial schools, in clear violation of Article X, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution.

Now comes word, in this article from Friday's (August 28, 2009) Chicago Tribune, that the Legislature is eliminating a state fund to buy textbooks for public schools.  Last year, according to Tribune story author Whitney Woodward, that fund provided $42 million dollars to public schools for textbooks.

Assistant Illinois Attorney General Rachel Murphy has, in behalf of her boss, Lisa Madigan, asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit for an extension of time to file the Appellant's Brief in the Illinois public school Student Prayer Act "Moment of Silence" case.

Miss Murphy has asked the appellate court to extend the deadline for filing their brief from September 8th to October 8, 2009.

Part Four of Four.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her staff have promised me that progress should be made, soon, regarding my litigation to stop Rod Blagojevich's State grant of one million of your tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church.

The grant was promised by Rod to Pilgrim Baptist after incompetent, uninsured, non-union roofers screwed up and burned the church to the ground in January of 2006.

The litigation has been on hold for about a year.  It should have been settled, long ago.

Note:  This story is about an event that has already taken place.

Your favorite ChicagoNow blogger will be the in-studio guest, tomorrow morning (Wednesday, August 26th), from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., on the Mornings with Ray Hanania Show on AM 1530 WJJG Elmhurst-Chicago.  You can also listen on-line.

I will be talking about the premier blog site in Chicagoland, ChicagoNow, how we literally have something for everybody -- and I do mean Everybody -- with nearly one hundred blogs, and how we are getting hundreds of thousands of page views (is it millions, yet?) every month.

All ChicagoNow bloggers and readers are invited to call in to say what you like about ChicagoNow and, hopefully, me!

The call-in number is (708) 493-1530.

That's Wednesday morning, August 26th, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.  Ray's show starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 9:30 a.m.  If you live far away, listen on-line.

Part Three of four.

Governor Quinn discussed with me the million dollar Pilgrim Baptist grant at his press conference on transparency in government, last week on Monday, August 17th.  Then, two days ago, on Sunday, Auust 23rd, after his press conference on clean water, Quinn discussed with me concerns that State workers have expressed to me about why they should have to take furlough days, if the State has tens of millions of dollars for houses of worship, parochial schools and religious ministries.