The Conservative Newsletter

"Nobody cares in what direction you want the wagon to go
if you won't get out of it and help push." --Jonah Goldberg

** New Zealand Today, New Haven Tomorrow
** Why the battle for religion in the public schools continues
** Private Ownership of Land?
** Association green-lights fines to owners with brown lawns
** The Land of the Free

New Zealand Today, New Haven Tomorrow

The mother of a 13-year-old schoolgirl is furious after discovering her daughter was given the morning-after pill at school.

But health and education authorities rallied around the public health nurse who handed it out to the girl without her parents' knowledge.

It was time for parents to accept many teens under 16 were having sex and should not have their lives ruined by becoming pregnant, they said.

The angry mother told a Taranaki newspaper the nurse had handed her daughter the morning-after pill, Postinor-2, at Spotswood College.

The girl insisted she hadn't been having sex and told her mother she thought she'd been given the contraceptive pill.

The mother said the nurse should have contacted both her and the family doctor to find out her daughter's medical history.

The Taranaki Health public health nurse told the mother she would not discuss her daughter's visit, citing patient confidentiality.

Under the law, the nurse has done nothing wrong. The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act was amended in 1990 to allow contraceptives and advice on contraceptives to be given to anyone of any age without parental consent.

Spotswood College acting principal Brett Sloan said he spoke with the mother on Tuesday.

The school had the "utmost faith" in the very experienced public health nurse, who is based at the school.

Commissioner for Children Roger McClay said where a young woman came from a stable background with supportive mothers and fathers, he felt "somewhat uneasy" that the parents weren't told.

"Why would a stranger know more about their child's needs than the mother?" he asked.

Those parents rightfully felt angry when they were not informed of the issues in their children's life.

It came down to a balancing act between the child's rights and the responsibility of parents.

TCN Comment: Maybe parents have rights in New Zealand Mr. McClay, but in the US "the village" has the rights. The rights of US parents are limited to producing subjects for the government to tax and to rule.

Why the battle for religion in the public schools continues

There are plenty of church-state fights being waged in the U.S. right now, but the vast majority of the battlegrounds are in the public school system. But why? In what should have been one of the greatest successes of the Clinton administration, the Department of Education mailed to every school in the country a packet of materials outlining the proper role of religion in the schools. The guidelines were the result of an unprecedented consensus reached by tremendously diverse religious and educational groups (including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Anti-Defamation League, People for the American Way, and the National Education Association).

The guidelines are pretty straightforward. For example: "Subject to applicable State laws, schools have the discretion to dismiss students to off-premises religious instruction, provided that schools do not encourage or discourage participation or penalize those who do not attend." Still, the ACLU is suing a school in Hawaii for exactly this kind of "released time" program.

Similarly, the Department of Education noted, "Students have a right to distribute religious literature to their schoolmates on the same terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature that is unrelated to school curriculum or activities." But in Wisconsin, an 8-year-old girl was forbidden by her teacher from handing out religious Valentine's Day cards and Halloween cards while other children passed out nonreligious cards. (The Liberty Counsel is suing the district.)

A Virginia school board is dragging its feet in addressing a petition of 450 students who want an elective Bible course (taught from a secular perspective). That should be completely uncontroversial, but just for the record, here's the Department of Education again: "Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach about religion, including the Bible or other scripture: the history of religion, comparative religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school subjects. Similarly, it is permissible to consider religious influences on art, music, literature, and social studies."

In an even crazier case, public school officials in Wyoming banned students from visiting the "From Tent to Temple" exhibit at the Wyoming State Museum because it has historical references to Jewish beliefs about monotheism and the Ten Commandments

So what is going on here? Why aren't clear, publicized guidelines being followed? An article in Education Week may have the answer: a survey found that "39 percent of administrators and 69 percent of teachers were 'not at all familiar' with the guidelines on religious expression in schools distributed by the Clinton administration in 2000." Apparently so. Not only aren't they familiar with the guidelines, they're not familiar with the principles underlying them: "About six in 10 teachers and administrators did not think students should be allowed to distribute religious materials at schools." As a result of the findings, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the First Amendment Center are teaming up on a multiyear project to educate the educators and make First Amendment freedoms more common in public schools. In the meantime, the controversies continue.

Private Ownership of Land?

In Fairfax County, Virginia, Mr. John Thorburn has been in jail for six weeks. After spending $125,000 on trees and shrubs the local zoning board insisted he plant on his golf driving range, it seems he planted some shrubs where the zoning board wanted trees -- a property boundary between the driving range and a homeowner -- and Mr. Thorburn has refused to comply. The homeowner in question is Mr. Thorburn's father, Robert, who did not request the trees and, moreover, says the matter is ridiculous. "[The zoning board] wants...my children to screen their own property from their own property. We own all the property across the street, too, every bit of it. So, it doesn't make any sense."

Of course, the Oakmar driving range down the road from Mr. Thorburn's range -- built and operated by Fairfax County -- was subject to no requirements to add trees and shrubs.
[ The Federalist ]

TCN Comment: It sounds more like punishing the competition to us. How likely is it that a county judge is going to give a fair and impartial hearing on this case??? It will be as fair and impartial as the zoning department.

*** If It Isn't the Government, It's the Neighborhood Association ***

Association green-lights fines to owners with brown lawns

BOYNTON BEACH, FL -- Like a man who is arrested for vagrancy after his pockets are picked, Don Bernstein is being fined by his homeowners association for having a brown lawn during a drought.

Board members said all but a half-dozen or so of the 83 homeowners have been able, as water managers have advised, to keep their lawns green with no more than two waterings a week.

Bernstein, an advertising executive, and the other neighbors who have been cited get to plead their cases at 7 tonight before the homeowners association board of the Crystal Key neighborhood, near Woolbright Road and Interstate 95.

"There may be a discussion as to whether or not it's too brown," board President David Spofford said. But, he said, "twice a week seems to be working for the majority of lawns in here."

In the region's grimmest drought on record, the South Florida Water Management District this week backed off on harsher restrictions, and even agreed to allow people to water more often by hand starting April 2 to keep their grass and shrubs green. The district, in a March 12 letter, urged local officials, homeowners groups and property managers to forgo enforcing rules "which result in the use of excessive quantities of water for aesthetic purposes."

Spofford said he first saw the water managers' letter, which was initially sent to a previous president, only over the weekend. The board's five-member violation/fine committee will take it into consideration, he said.

Bernstein says he waters fastidiously to the extent allowed by water restrictions and the few brown patches on his lawn are probably the result of direct sunlight.

"They're not using common sense," Bernstein fumed. "It's just spotty. Anywhere you drive, you're going to see brown."

Bernstein says he received a letter at the end of February from "Joshua" -- no last name -- of the homeowners group's "violation management," citing him for lawn browning and giving him to March 18 to comply.

"I did the best I could under the restrictions" to green up the brown spots, Bernstein said.

But a letter sent March 21 said Bernstein had been fined $100 for "excessive browning" but could appeal.

Paulette Ankeney, the board's treasurer, said the "Joshua" hired by the board is her son but said the board voted several months ago not to give homeowners a telephone number for the management company because homeowners "grossly abused" the privilege in the past by "barraging" managers with complaints. Spofford said some companies have quit in frustration.

Ankeney also said Bernstein, who held her job when the neighborhood first opened about four years ago, should have taken his dissatisfaction to the board, not the newspapers.

TCN Comment: It seems like every neighborhood in Florida has one of these para-governmental clubs. They tell everyone in the community when they can move their lawn and how short it must be when finished. They tell you want color and when to paint your home, when you can open the garage door and how long it can stand open, when you can light your outdoor grill, what type of fence you can have and sometimes what contractors you have to use to make repairs.

Everytime one of the PC group drives through, and they make regular patrols, and sees something they don't like, the association makes another rule, and sets a fine for violators.

There is no justification for this blatant abuse of private property rights. The only excuse ever given is the protection of property values…. It is simple cases of my dollars trump your rights and freedoms. This country has certainly lost track of her roots and as a result she has lost most of everything she ever had to be proud of. It is a sad day in US history.

By the Way Boynton Beach IS in Palm Beach County, home of the most "intelligent" DemocRATS in the US.

The Land of the Free

TCN Comment: If you are a Christian and live in a country where the government has been taken over by Muslims, where do you go to be able to freely practice what you believe? The US is your first choice, but many immigrants find that they get to freely practice their Christianity behind politically motivated barb-wire fences.

What is the crime that puts them behind bars? The fact that they cannot secure "proper papers" from their oppressive Muslim governments!

There are many other excuses used to illegally hold immigrants who still come here believing the US is a "free" country. The facts follow.

Hundreds of foreigners, including asylum seekers and others convicted of no crime, are trapped indefinitely in U.S. jails.

More than 800 people from 69 countries have been locked up by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for at least three years, according to documents The Dallas Morning News obtained under federal open records laws.

The numbers are nearly three times the total previously acknowledged by the INS.

The INS' records also show that 361 of the agency's longest-held prisoners include asylum seekers and others who have not been convicted of any crime that requires their detention under recent changes in immigration law.

They remain jailed despite the immigration agency's assurance to Congress in 1998 that "people who come to this country yearning to be free should not languish behind bars."

Immigration officials in Washington said they detain no one needlessly, but that "there may be people who do fall through the cracks."

"We only detain people under conditions we are required to by law, because we believe they are a danger to the community, or they are a flight risk," INS Assistant Commissioner John F. O'Malley said last week.

"We do not detain anyone for being an asylum seeker," he said. "We detain them because they ... have sought admission with counterfeit documents or no documents."

The practice of detaining asylum seekers and others with minor legal problems has been widely condemned by U.N. officials and immigrant advocates.

"Asylum seekers who are not a threat to society should not be detained and should not be treated like criminals," said Jane Kochman of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. "Nor should refugees or asylum seekers who are convicted of relatively minor offenses be subjected to indefinite detention."

While Americans jailed in foreign lands frequently become the subject of international media attention as the United States attempts to arrange their release, the INS keeps the identities of foreigners in American prisons a tightly held secret. Identifying them, the agency says, would violate their rights to privacy.

Wendy Young, an official with the New York-based Women's Commission for Refugees and Children, said INS' detention practices are "clearly out of step on international standards."

"We have one of the most extreme policies of any country in the world," she said. "That's ironic in that we're a nation that prides itself on immigrant and refugee traditions" while "causing human-rights violations against refugees in our own borders."

Mr. O'Malley said the immigration agency complies with all U.S. and international laws governing the treatment of foreign citizens.

On any given day, the INS has about 20,000 people in detention. Snared at the nation's borders and plucked from the streets for crimes committed long ago, most are quickly deported to their homelands. Some spend months behind bars before their cases are reviewed and they are released.

For others, however, what was intended as temporary detention stretches indefinitely.

The prolonged detention of so many foreigners is costly to American taxpayers. The tab for locking up the 851 longest-held prisoners for a year would be about $23 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, is expected to rule this year on the constitutionality of indefinitely detaining foreigners. The question reached the court after the nation's appellate courts issued conflicting opinions.

Doris Meissner, the former INS commissioner who testified before a Senate committee about the issue in 1998, said in an interview that she was unfamiliar with the information obtained by The News.

"There are all kinds of reasons why they might be detained," she said. "Without knowing more about the circumstances, I don't think I can shed much light on it."

Many are being detained because their home countries won't accept them, and the INS refuses to release them. Others remain locked up while they fight deportation or attempt to prove their identities.

Almost 70 percent of the longest-held prisoners are Cuban, according to INS records.

Of the 588 Cubans in detention, 160 have been behind bars for a decade or more. Many of them appear to be Marielitos who came to the United States in the "freedom flotilla," a massive exodus from the Port of Mariel in the spring of 1980.

Another large group - about 10 percent - comes from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Those three southeast Asian countries and Cuba have strained relations with the United States that make deportation virtually impossible.

The remaining 171 persons who have been held for more than three years come from 65 other countries representing a third of the world's nations, most of which have well-established diplomatic relations with the United States.

A 1996 law requires the INS to deport foreigners convicted of crimes that Congress broadly defined as "aggravated felonies."

The congressional definition includes crimes that would normally be considered felonies, such as murder and rape, but also some relatively minor offenses that carry light sentences. The law also allows the agency to keep those it can't deport behind bars.

INS records show that 489 of the longest-held prisoners, or about 60 percent, have been convicted of crimes defined as aggravated felonies. For one of the 851 prisoners, the record did not include information about criminal history.

But the remaining 361 prisoners, according to the agency's files, have no such conviction.

When the INS was asked why these people were being held, agency officials challenged the accuracy of the records they had provided The News. They have refused, however, to explain why each person is in detention.

In general, they say some prisoners have convictions for crimes not considered aggravated felonies. Others are detained because officials fear they will vanish if released on parole. Many who are released each year are never heard from again, officials say.

The News' three-year inquiry into the INS' long-term imprisonment of foreigners found contradictions and errors in the data the agency provided. The agency said in 1999, for example, that it had held 294 prisoners for more than three years. Records released a year later, however, show nearly three times that number - 851 foreigners, half of whom had been held for more than five years.

Several prisoners have told The News that the INS misstated the date that they last entered detention. INS officials say some entries regarding the criminal histories of individual prisoners are wrong.

Nonetheless, the INS' most recent accounting of its long-term prisoners appears to be the most comprehensive thus far.

"The numbers ... are unconscionable," said Lou Pritchard, a Seattle attorney who presides over an American Bar Association committee working to provide lawyers for imprisoned foreigners. The figures "are much bigger than we've ever been told."

In order to accommodate the spiraling numbers of detained foreigners, the INS relies on a web of hundreds of county jails, private lockups and federal prisons, including some of the nation's toughest.

The U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo., for example, is a high-security complex that has housed some of the nation's most notorious criminals, including Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh and assassin Charles Harrelson. But the facility is also home to 21 Cuban detainees, some of whom have been held for more than a decade, according to INS records.

Whatever the precise count might be, it is clear that hundreds of people, some with no criminal convictions at all, have spent years in INS detention.

Bi Meng Zheng, for example, spent more than four years in INS custody after fleeing China and seeking asylum in the United States. He was released in 1999. His whereabouts today are unknown.

Jimmy Johnson, who fled civil war in Liberia, spent almost seven years in detention before the courts ordered the INS to free him. Since his release in January, he has been living with friends in Pennsylvania. Others are still behind bars.

A 38-year-old Sri Lankan farmer, Thavarajah, was taken into custody the day he arrived in the United States almost four years ago. He says he fled his homeland after being repeatedly beaten and jailed by military troops, and he is begging officials to grant him freedom. The INS says he cannot be considered for release until his appeals are final.

Francis Avit has been detained for more than five years. He said he fled persecution in his home country of Ivory Coast hoping to begin a new life in the United States.

"When I got to Kennedy airport [in New York] I applied for asylum and they put me in detention," he said in a telephone interview from a Pennsylvania prison. INS records show Mr. Avit has not been convicted of an aggravated felony but has nevertheless been jailed since Nov. 15, 1995. The INS says it has been unable to get documents from Ivory Coast needed to deport him.

"This is a country where everyone can cite their opinion and has the right to liberty and freedom," he said, "but it hasn't worked out for me."
[Dallas Morning News ]

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