Dateline Sacramento (01/21/2010)
Dateline Sacramento
News with a View from the California Capitol
January 21, 2010
Sticks and Stones
Despite the old adage that “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” children still experience the hurt of being picked on. It might be for wearing glasses, for having braces, for being the class “brain,” for speaking with an accent or a lisp, or even for having a physical handicap, but most children don’t grow up without experiencing some of the pain of being left out. Name-calling and bullying are real problems, and parents and teachers must not only “soothe ruffled feathers,” but also teach children how to be kind to one another.
Next week many schools will focus on this issue with a special No Name-Calling Week (NNCW). Now in its seventh year, the program is a project of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Resources on the GLSEN and NNCW websites include books with a pro-homosexual slant and other activities that teach the position that the problem is one of wrong attitudes and ignorance about certain groups of people.
No Name-Calling Week was based on the children’s book, The Misfits, written by openly homosexual author James Howe. In the book, “A Gang of Five” junior-high students tackle the issue of name-calling by organizing a campus political campaign around the issue of stamping out bullying of any kind. Although the group of friends (one of whom is an openly homosexual seventh-grader) loses the election, they win the respect of the principal who supports their No Name-Calling Day concept.
The highlighting of The Misfits and the campaign’s association with GLSEN led to early criticism that the NNCW program was a thinly veiled attempt to teach children a pro-homosexual message in the schools. As more curriculum has been developed to expand the program from a middle-school focus to include both elementary and high-school students, the pro-homosexual message has become more apparent.
The new high-school curriculum, “Lights, Camera, Action: Using Film to End Anti-LGBT Name-Calling, Bullying and Harassment,” created by GLSEN and a group called Stories of Us, “is designed to help draw students’ attention to name-calling, bullying, and harassment that targets sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression…” (emphasis added) It exposes students to student-made media on the topic, teaches them to differentiate between harassment based on an individual’s identity and other types of name-calling and bullying, and teaches them basic LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) terminology. One activity calls for students to brainstorm and share different reasons students might be called names or bullied. If sexual orientation and gender identity/expression aren’t on the student-generated lists, the teacher is to mention them.
Elementary-school parents can no longer believe their children are immune from pro-homosexual advocacy in their public schools. While less obvious, one of the discussion scenarios in the curriculum for youngsters in grades kindergarten through fourth grade involves a girl who brings her two dads to parents’ night at school.
Tolerance today no longer means to politely respect a viewpoint with which you disagree – as it did in past generations. Today’s tolerance is a forced neutrality, at best. Truth is non-existent or is understood as a nebulous, shifting concept that is different for each individual. Yet those who believe in an unchanging truth or disagree with homosexuality as morally wrong are considered intolerant, while those who promote homosexual behavior refuse to tolerate the faith-based view that homosexuality is wrong.
Parents, find out what is happening in your local schools. While bullying and name-calling are appropriate for classroom discussion, the pro-homosexual curriculum that may be used is not. It is becoming more and more important for you to keep the lines of communication between school and home open. Talk with other parents, volunteer in your child’get to know your child’s teachers, attend parent meetings and school-board meetings, and volunteer to serve on committees.
Additional Resources for Parents:
· Education: Gay Activism in the Schools, CitizenLink
· True Tolerance, a project of Focus on the Family
· Homosexuality In Your Child's School, Family Research Council
California’s Proposition 71 – A $3,000,000,000 Bait and Switch
On November 2, 2004 California voters passed Proposition 71, which established a constitutional right to conduct embryonic stem cell research. It also authorized the state to borrow $3 billion – on behalf of the taxpayers – with a projected total cost of $6 billion, including interest, to fund the research. In addition, it established the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to regulate stem cell research and provide funding through grants and loans for such research and research facilities.
Fifty-nine percent of the electorate was convinced that embryonic stem cell research was on the cutting edge of science and that public funding for the harvesting of preborn babies’ stem cells would be the key to finding successful treatments for myriad debilitating physical conditions.
Supporters of the CIRM held out hopes of imminent medical breakthroughs that were claimed to only be delayed by President Bush’s policy disallowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. California voters were convinced and agreed to foot the bill.
Because the lives of thousands of preborn human embryos were now at stake, California Family Council created the California Family Bioethics Council LLC, which filed a lawsuit against Proposition 71. The lawsuit pointed out blatant conflicts of interest, as members of the CIRM board were charged with overseeing the $3 billion in bond money, yet themselves benefitted from the distribution of that money. Although the lawsuit did not ultimately succeed, it delayed the process and saved innocent lives.
Five years later, and after taxpayers’ investment of billions of dollars in embryonic stem cell research (ESCR), there have been no cures and no successful therapies. So now ESCR supporters are embracing research they once cavalierly rejected.
ESCR has failed to deliver, and backers of Prop. 71 are admitting failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state agency created to “restore science to its rightful place,” is diverting funds from ESCR to research that has produced actual therapies and treatments.
Treatments with adult stem cells have not only helped real people with real results, they also protect the sanctity of life. This classic bait-and-switch is an attempt to dismiss the failure of ESCR and take credit for discoveries and advances achieved through adult stem cell research, not at all what the proponents of Proposition 71 had promised.
Dr. Bernadine Healy, director of the National Institutes of Health under President George W. Bush, recently wrote in her U.S. News & World Report column that embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes, are obsolete. Even worse, they can be dangerous. They are difficult to control and to coax into the specific type of tissue desired. Unlike adult stem cells taken from a patient’s own body, embryonic stem cells require the heavy use of immunosuppressive drugs. Their use can lead to a form of tumor called a teratoma.
In 2008, as embryonic stem cell cures looked increasingly unlikely, a new president, bringing a track record of discoveries from the lab to the clinic, was hired for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “If we went 10 years and had no clinical treatments, it would be a failure,” said the new president, Alan Trounson, a stem cell pioneer from Australia. “We need to demonstrate that we are starting a whole new medical revolution.”
CIRM is attempting to do that now by funding adult stem cell research. Nearly $230 million was handed out this past October to 14 research teams. Notably, only four of those projects involve embryonic stem cells.
Among the recipients, the Los Angeles Times reports, is a group from UCLA and Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles that hopes to cure patients with sickle cell disease by genetically modifying their own blood-forming stem cells to produce healthy red blood cells. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will use their grant to research injecting heart-attack patients with concentrated amounts of their own cardiac stem cells that naturally repair heart tissue.
California Family Council believes that human life is sacred, stemming from our Creator. We are committed to protecting the preborn from harm and will continue to work diligently to protect the most innocent and vulnerable among us. It is our desire to keep you informed on the latest news and research, so please visit our website regularly. We encourage you to forward our publications to your family and friends.
Budget season begins where it left off
Last year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature attempted to deal with the largest budget deficit in the state’s history. After intense political wrangling, politicking, and negotiating, several remedies for the $60 billion budget shortfall were approved including spending cuts, transferring money from special funds, suspending Proposition 98 (which mandates spending percentages on K-12 education), borrowing from future expenditures, and increasing taxes by $12 billion. The 2009 budget also relied heavily on receiving federal dollars to cover federal mandates.
Despite past efforts, California’s 2010 budget is facing another $20 billion deficit. According to Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget plan, California’s deficit includes $6.9 billion this year and a $12.3 billion shortfall during the next fiscal year.
The governor’s plan states that several of the proposed 2009 budget savings were not realized. For instance, $4.9 billion in lost savings resulted from federal and state court decisions, (e.g., invalidating the sale of the State Compensation Insurance Fund). Additionally, some enacted remedies failed to achieve their predicted savings, including changes made to the state prison system and Medi-Cal, which together resulted in $2.3 billion in lost savings. Finally, the governor states that the previous budget overestimated its anticipated revenues, accounting for another $3.4 billion shortfall.
Governor Schwarzenegger responded to the state’s fiscal realities by calling another emergency session of the legislature. He also issued an Executive Order requiring all state agencies to reduce salaries by five percent.
In his 2010-11 budget proposal, Governor Schwarzenegger makes additional spending cuts, fund shifts, and increases specific “fees.” The proposal includes the sale of the EdFund (a college tuition funding program), and authorizes the sale and leaseback of state owned property. Further, the budget proposes to shift funds from voter-approved initiative accounts, and it creates steeper fines for speeding violations associated with red light cameras. The governor claims that there are no new taxes in his proposed budget, although “fees” will be increased.
Legislative budget committees are reviewing the governor’s proposed plan. Both Assembly and Senate Budget Committees have convened hearings to evaluate components of the budget and to hear testimony from the Department of Finance (Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget office) and the Legislative Analyst’s Office (the Legislature’s independent analysts). The Department of Finance provides insight and explanations for the decisions offered in the proposed budget, while the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) provides overview and analyses of the proposed budget.
The LAO noted that their projections of the state’s deficit are approximately $2 billion more than the governor’s numbers, but that the governor’s numbers are reasonable. They also noted that the governor’s budget relies heavily on $8 billion in anticipated federal revenues, adding that it is unrealistic the state would receive that amount. According to the LAO, “the odds seem favorable for some federal relief…the chances that the state will receive all of what the governor seeks from Washington is almost non-existent.” This week, the governor and several legislative leaders are in Washington, DC meeting with congressional members to discuss California’s need for federal funds.
Before March, the governor and legislators will attempt to solve the immediate $6 billion deficit. Failure to resolve the current year’s deficit will increase the state deficit by another estimated $4 billion. Once policy makers address the immediate shortfall, Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature will wait for the May Revise – when the Governor releases his budget revision – to ascertain the true picture of the state’s fiscal and budgetary health.
January is simply the start of a long budget cycle. CFC will keep you updated as budget negotiations develop.
Local Links
OAKLAND – While Proposition 8 is being tried in a San Francisco federal court, supporters of the 2008 proposition continue to be targeted by opponents. In Oakland, the city across the bay, Lorenzo Hoopes, president of the Paramount Theater’s 11-member board of directors, has come under fire for his donation to Proposition 8. Read more in New York Times.
HESPERIA – The conflict over prayer at public meetings in California have reached the Hesperia Unified School District. Alliance Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union each have sent letters arguing the legalities of conducting invocations at board meetings. Read more in the Hesperia Star.
SACRAMENTO – Sacramento City Unified School District is considering a proposed charter school that specifically targets education for Hmong students. However, several school board members are concerned that such a school equates to segregation. Read more in the Sacramento Bee.
Truth Project Opportunities
RIVERSIDE – California Family Council continues to expand its offerings of the acclaimed Truth Project group leader training seminars. Training in biblical worldview is a prerequisite to living out authentic Christianity in today’s postmodern culture, with its subjective claims of truth.
The next Truth Project Group Leader Training Seminars:
Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Calvary Chapel of Livermore
545 North L Street
Livermore, CA 94551 (Alameda County)
Proyecto La Verdad Group Leader Training Seminar:
Spanish Language
Saturday, February 6, 2010 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Santa Maria Foursquare Church
709 N. Curryer Street
Santa Maria, CA 93458 (Santa Barbara County)
For more information on attending or hosting a seminar, call the California Family Council at 951.354.8362 and ask for Trudy. Register online for seminars at: www.californiafamily.org.
