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TERRY’S TIDBITS

By Terry Gray

PROM SMOKEOUT

Trail County North Dakota’s school system has some very odd rules and a very high opinion of its authority.  An 18 year old senior, Leona Fitzpatrick of Hillsboro High, was seen smoking at a bank.  This student was not on school property, was not representing the school in any fashion, and was breaking no laws.  For her contemptuous behavior, she was suspended for 18 weeks and denied the right to attend her senior prom.  Judge Wade Webb issued a temporary injunction that allowed Ms. Fitzpatrick to continue her education and attend the prom.  The judge said that it was not an easy decision, and it wasn’t a final ruling.  “While issuing his decision, Webb repeatedly reminded those in the courtroom he was not ruling on the merits of the case and that his decision has no bearing on similar high school suspensions in North Dakota.” Why not?

ACLU spokesperson Jennifer Ring said, “…the outcome would help define how far the state’s schools can reach into their students’ lives. ‘If the family wins, then that tells us what the limit is.’” 

I’m at a loss here.  Can someone tell me why we need to define our personal freedoms to a local school board?  Why do we need to establish limits on how far a local school board can go into our personal affairs?  There should be no question that this was a breach of Ms. Fitzpatrick’s constitutional rights.  The judge in this case, though issuing a temporary restraining order, is obviously blinded to individual freedoms.  He must be up for reelection.  A couple of slaps across the face with the American flag might wake him up, but I wouldn’t want to soil the flag.

If the local school authority can, and obviously does, believe itself to be within its bounds to restrict its adult students from enjoying legal activities while off campus, they must feel that they can step into the homes of students to monitor their activity there as well.

Imagine the scenario where Ms. Fitzpatrick, being an 18 year old adult, is seen through her bedroom window smoking a cigarette and is suspended from school for that.  If you don’t believe that can happen, then read on.  “The district says its policies banning students from using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs apply to all students, regardless of age or where they are caught.” 

This school board has empowered itself to enter into adult students’ lives and control them contrary to the laws that affect the lives of the rest of our adult society. 

“You can do what you want or do what they tell you.
It’s the land of the free but don’t take it too far.
You can do what you want; you can fight in a war.
But in twenty o’ three you can’t smoke in a bar.
                                   Joe Jackson

SMOKE FREE LOUISVILLE

I have been sick of this organization cramming itself and its foolish, self-serving agenda down the throats of the people of Louisville for some time now.  I was probably foolish myself at first, because I assumed that Smoke Free Louisville was operating legally in our community.  They are out front in their quest for oppression and control and as such, one would think that they have their bases covered.

Their recent radio ads, filled with propaganda that would make any patriot sick, made me take notice of some discrepancies that I had put on the back burner.

I did a search for Smoke Free Louisville on the Secretary of State’s site and found nothing, so I sent an email to Frankfort.  They told me that there was no listing for Smoke Free Louisville and to contact the county clerk.  The county clerk did several searches under different names and spellings and came up with zilch.  They directed me to the revenue commission and they found nothing.  When I questioned Stan at the revenue commission, he informed me that if this group is doing business in Kentucky, even under another corporation’s umbrella or under a federal group, that they must be registered with the Secretary of State.  Even he became interested as we searched around.  I don’t think it is a good thing when the revenue commission is interested in knowing what is going on.

Going back to the Secretary of State’s site, I searched for prominent names associated with Smoke Free Louisville.  Mike Kuntz turned up nothing.  The American Lung Association turned up nothing.  Kentucky Action turned up nothing.  But taking a stab in the dark at one of the other vocal players in this socialist group, I turned up Julie Brackett.  The ever optimistic Ms. Brackett is listed by the Secretary of State.

In 1993, the Coalition for Health and Agricultural Development, Inc was registered in Kentucky as a non-profit corporation.  The registered agent is Ms. Amy Barkley.  The president of the corporation is Ms. Julie Brackett.  The status of the corporation with the Secretary of State is inactive and in BAD standing.  Their last annual report was filed on 3-25-02.  Kentucky Health Investments for Kids (KHIK) listed the Coalition for Health and Agricultural Development as an active partner on its latest website dated 11-21-03.  I did find it interesting that KHIK would be associated with an inactive Kentucky corporation in bad standing until my research uncovered that Julie Brackett is the chair for KHIK.  But it seems that KHIK isn’t registered with the Secretary of State either.  Brackett is also the Senior Director of Advocacy for the American Heart Association.  I can’t find Ms. Amy Barkley anywhere, but I did find a Robert Barkley listed as the Senior Director of Advocacy for the AHA in Indiana.

Ms. Brackett wants to protect our children and for adults to set a good example as leaders and parents.  Should she expect us to emulate her ethics?  I bet the Secretary of State wouldn’t like that.

These people are slippery to track down.  Why?  They seem to weave in and out of these organizations like snot squeezing past a soggy, germ infested tissue.

Forces International, Forces Kentucky, and the Metro Hospitality Coalition are researching who, what, where, and why.  We especially want to know how Smoke Free Louisville can hide from the Secretary of State while doing a multitude of damage to the community of Louisville.  It all sounds a little fishy to me.

SMOKE FREE BAGHDAD

Anti-smoking zealots are on the move.  “Our people in Baghdad have been through enough,” said No-Smoka Bin-Banning of the newly formed Smoke Free Baghdad.  “Every time I come from goat roundup I smell tobacco smoke.  It is very, very bad.”

The debates on smoking bans have developed since America began to install freedom in Iraq.  “Just in time,” said Bacco Op-Presser.  “We will write into our new constitution this no smoking law.  We don’t drink alcohol so why we want to smoke.  We shall keep cafes free from evil smoke.  We don’t even smoke hams.  America on the right track, they take our guns and give us constitution much like theirs.  They force us to be free and we shall be smoke free too.”

Smoke Free Baghdad’s second-in-command says, “Before Americans we banned alcohol, western clothes, and freedom of religion.  Imagine that a small minority group like Smoke Free Baghdad can now decide what to ban for the enjoyment of our people.  We can ban so much more than we could before we were free.”

Mike Kuntz of Smoke Free Louisville is proud of Smoke Free Baghdad and their stance in smoking in the face of all their other trials.  “Julie Brackett and I praise them every day for their firm stance.  Why should they live another day with second hand smoke?  This is wonderful news.  We’ll be in touch with next week to remind them to change their name often.”

Meanwhile, uprisings continue in Iraq, accounting for more American soldiers’ deaths.  The price of freedom in Iraq is worth the risk for many of these young men.  “It is their freedom that is at stake here,” said MSG Larry Smith.  “They should have the right to choose how to live their lives.  Freedom is the American way, and we want the Iraqi people to enjoy American Freedom at its finest.”

PROPAGANDA AT A GLANTZ.

Stan Glantz was in town yesterday to pump up the propaganda troops on the anti-smoking front.  Stan Glantz is a semi-known doctor out of California that has become a self-proclaimed authority on environmental tobacco smoke.  His biggest claim to fame was the Helena Montana study a couple of years ago that proved that smoking bans reduced the number of heart attacks in Helena.  Forces International says, “The experience of Helena, Montana is held up as the example for this, and frothing-mouthed Stanton Glantz of the University of California, is the source. Glantz's ravings about Helena have been exposed and excoriated by critics repeatedly since they appeared last year.”  (Forces International).

Glantz is associated with the late-late night radio show Dreamland, where UFOlogists “prove” that their findings are really neat artifacts from other worlds and other long-lost civilizations on Earth.  Forces once again takes a much deserved poke at Glantz.  “That person is Stanton Glantz, the mechanical engineer who transformed himself into a professor of medicine at the University of California.  So blatant are Glantz's biases that he has been cut off from several funding sources over the years.  Still, he carries on transforming garbage into fool’s gold, dazzling the rubes and cashing in wherever he can.  He may get no respect from the scientific community, but with at least one entertainer whose bread is buttered with alien abductions, alchemy and cosmic convergences he's an oracle of truth.”  (Forces International).

The Helena study wasn’t a study at all.  “First, the study isn’t easy to evaluate -- but not because it’s rocket science. There simply is no study to evaluate.”  (Fox News, October 17, 2003).  It seems that there was a sudden dip in the number of heart attacks in Helena immediately following a smoking ban.  Two doctors in Helena witnessed this miracle and reported it.  Where were these doctors four years earlier when the same dip in the number of heart attacks occurred in Helena for no apparent reason?  Huh?

If you click on the “slideshow” link you’ll see that the dip in the heart attack rate came in the first 3 months of the ban.  The May/June season is good traveling weather in Montana and many people were away on vacation.  Many smokers no doubt left town to find real American freedom to smoke, drink, gamble and whatever.  If someone had a heart attack while traveling, he would likely be treated at a hospital in the area where the heart attack took place, attributing to lower numbers of heart attacks in Helena.  As summer travelers started trickling back in, heart attack numbers rose again simply because of the increased number of people in Helena.  

There is a lot to be said for this study, however.  “The results were issued in typical junk science style via a quick-and-dirty slideshow presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (search). Six months later, the study still is not available to the public.” (Fox News).

After Glantz’s speech in front of city hall, the Metro City Council began moving away from fees for smoking establishments, a proposal that had previously gained favor, and began considering signage only.  Thanks Stan, you all come back now, ya hear?

GUNS

There was a very disturbing shooting lately, and a child was injured.  I hate for things like this to happen.  The responsible party should suffer the consequences.  Law abiding gun owners, however, should not be lumped in the same category.

The owner of the gun was a convicted felon.  He was not a law abiding person.  But immediately after the shooting, the media started the age old questioning of gun laws.  When a man, who shouldn’t be driving, irresponsibly runs his car into someone else, we don’t hold all drivers responsible.  The same should be true for gun owners.  There is no reason for stricter guns laws based on the records of legal gun owners.  Even those legally carrying concealed weapons have displayed remarkable safety statistics.  Leave it at that.

The shooter was also a kid.  He found a gun that he shouldn’t have found, but these things happen.  What we as a society have done is exclude guns from kids’ lives.  Because of our stupidity and their ignorance, they do not know the dangers of handling weapons.  They have no way of knowing that some guns are real and some are not.  If this same kid had found a knife, what is the possibility that he would have stabbed another kid innocently?  He would know a real knife from a toy knife.

As long as we pretend that guns don’t exist or guns are bad, the longer the possibility exists of these kinds of accidents.  Don’t buy toy guns.  Educate your kids about guns, but do it honestly.  Let them know that a gun is a machine and, like any machine, it can be used for good or bad.

FAULTY AMBER

A system is only as good as the people operating it and, in this case, people failed the system.  Some idiot cancelled the alert before a missing baby was found.  I will give them credit for describing the baby though - “New born, 19 inches long.”  I jumped from my chair and screamed, “I know that baby!”

PRIMARY

Remember, May 28, 2004 is the primary.  I need your vote, but, more importantly, freedom needs your vote.  All of those wacky politicians that run around thinking they are better than you and me have an advantage -- they vote.  They can be wacky because we let them.  If you think your vote doesn’t count, think again.  One vote has decided a lot of issues that affect our lives daily.  One vote decided what would be the official language of America.

Your one vote means more than one vote.  It sends a message to government that you are interested in taking charge.  Government doesn’t like that.  They want to be in charge, and they try so hard to convince us that they are in charge.  You know what?  They are in charge as long as you don’t vote.

Voting is painless and pretty quick.  You can stop on your way to work, on your way home from work, or at lunch.  You can take off a few minutes from work, and what employer is going to hold it against you.  The painful and long lasting alternative is knowing that you could have made a difference and didn’t do anything.  Now you’re stuck for a few years with a “leader” that doesn’t represent you at all.  Now that is wacky.

The choice is yours.

Terry Gray
Candidate – 2004
Kentucky House of Representatives
District 38
www.terrygray.net
Paid for by Terry Gray   

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