BOB HUGERI
 

Observations from the Sidelines: Jesus Loves You

December 4, 2005

With the Christmas season fast approaching we are sure to hear many stories of this sort. There is a dog park being built near my new home, Cosmo Park. The Town of Gilbert was offering bricks for sale with a brief message on them to be placed at the park. We gave one of our dogs the middle name Jesus (pronounced hay soos), wrote a check for the $20 and put in our application. We wanted everybody to know what a friendly dog we had in Jack-Jesus (pronounced hay soos) so our brick stated “Jesus (pronounced hay soos) Loves You.” The nice lady at the town office took my application and check, read what it said and said “Oh, how nice.”

A few weeks later I received a call from the town telling me that my message was not acceptable. I was asked if there was any other message I wanted to put I on the brick by the nice polite gentleman from the town. I told him I liked it just the way it was. A short while later I received my application and $20 check back with a letter stating that due to the “seemingly religious nature of the message” the town would not accept my message for the brick, and that it was “inappropriate for display in a public park.”

I called the Town of Gilbert and asked what their policy is for such bricks. The lady I spoke with told me there is no such written policy; they only do not accept messages that are in “bad taste.”

I then emailed Mayor Steve Berman, Councilman Steve Urie, Councilman Don Skousen, and Councilman Les Presmyk. Only one of them, Don Skousen, had the decency to email me back on my first try. I spoke with Mayor Berman at a meeting and asked him about my email and why he did not email me back. Now I know he must receive many emails, but he actually told me he did not email me back because he wanted to talk to me in person about it. He had no clue that I was going to be at this meeting. Mayor Berman actually tried the old “separation of church and state” bit on me. Not only is there no such a thing, and he knows it, but this was a clear case of government preventing the free exercise of religion (if the brick’s message were read differently) which is precisely what the First Amendment is there for. He also told me how transparent my brick was and why not just name my dog Jose. If I were Hispanic I would have been extremely offended by what he said.

Speaking with Councilman Urie at the same meeting, he told me that they did not accept the brick because of how the town got “beat up” over Bible Week a few weeks ago. I am not sure what Bible Week has to do with the Hispanic name Jesus (pronounced hay soos). When I asked him why the town then celebrates and has a party for Halloween he actually had the gall to say they no longer have a “Halloween Party” and that it is called Fall Festival. A quick check of the town website revealed that Mr. Urie is either uninformed about what goes on in his town or was trying to put a fast one over on me. On the Town of Gilbert’s very own website they had a huge advertisement for the “Gilbert Family Halloween Carnival.”

Les Presmyk, after receiving three emails from me, finally emailed me back stating, “We cannot allow your brick.” It needs to have a “non-secular phrase,” he said. First of all, Mr. Presmyk needs to learn the meaning of the word secular, and second, I told him specifically my dog brick said, “Jesus (pronounced hay soos) Loves You.” 

Councilman Skousen was the only one really interested in speaking with me about it, and I do appreciate his sincere interest. He actually emailed me and called me twice (I missed him both times). However, that said, he proceeded to tell me he spoke with two, yes two people, out of the 170,000 plus that live in Gilbert, a Catholic and a Hispanic, and both were offended at the message on my brick.

Well, I have spoken with more than two people and all are offended at the town’s refusal of both a Hispanic name and Christianity’s Lord and Savior. One of the people I spoke with put it quite succinctly when he said that the council members are “spineless.” To be honest, I was as offended by our supposed conservative Republican town leader’s response as I was by the actual refusal of the brick. They totally and completely dismissed me and refused to even consider anything I had to say. I wonder what type of response I would have received from them had I been Muslim or Atheist.

Here are a few quotes for our mayor and council members to consider.

Andrew Jackson: "The Bible is the foundation upon which our republic rests."

John Quincy Adams: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." (July 4, 1821) 

George Washington, October 3, 1789, Proclaiming a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving: "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and to humbly implore His protection and favor."

Thomas Jefferson: "The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." 

I could fill an entire book on quotes from the great men who founded this country, risked their lives, their families and their fortunes to give us the Constitution and the supposed freedoms we have. Quotes on not only how important God was in their lives and this country, but in this country’s leaders. The Town of Gilbert now joins in groveling to the extreme, far left, liberal groups whose sole purpose is to toss God out of society. We have heard “God Bless America” all our lives. Well, how in the world can God continue to bless a country that continually tries to kick Him out of everything public?