Citizens Project

What is the value of diversity?

26th March, 2010

Special thanks to Citizens Project youth volunteer videographer Isaac and Impact Video Production for this video! Interviews were taped at the 2009 Everybody Welcome Festival of Cultural Diversity in Colorado Springs’ America the Beautiful Park.

Citizens Project in the news!

25th March, 2010

You’ve seen the billboards, the print ads, the bus sides and the websites. Church Equals State, Freedom From Expression, Create Isolation, Celebrate Conformity. And now you know that Citizens Project was the organization behind this provocative campaign.

Learn more about what the campaign is all about by checking out Citizens Project’s recent media coverage and stay tuned to learn how you can join the conversation!

• Check out the Gazette article by Mark Barna: Springs nonprofit hopes billboards spark diversity dialogue
• Read a story by Anthony Lane on the Colorado Springs Independent blog: Church equals state? Huh?
• Also, watch for Citizens Project on KRDO Channel 13 news this evening, when Executive Director Barb Van Hoy talks about the awareness campaign

If you haven’t already, please join our email list for opportunities to get involved!

Texas Board of Education re-writes history

19th March, 2010

Educators, historians, journalists and commentators all over the country are decrying the decision by the Texas Board of Education to approve highly politicized revisions to public school curriculum.

Thanks to the Texas Freedom Network for this round-up:

A San Francisco Chronicle columnist sharply criticizes the State Board of Education’s rewriting of Texas social studies standards.

San Francisco Chronicle

Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state’s borders.

Washington Post

The San Antonio Express-News says the “latest example of SBOE incompetence springs from the same source as other outrages: The inability of social conservatives on the state board to distinguish between ideology and education.”

San Antonio Express-News

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, director of the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project at the University of Texas School of Journalism, says the Texas State Board of Education apparently wasn’t listening as witnesses came from across the state to urge members to consider the inclusion of more Hispanic Americans in social studies curriculum standards.

Austin American-Statesman

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have now, in their characteristic ways, weighed in on the Texas State Board of Education.

Colbert Report

Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Religious Right Offensive on Public Education in Texas

15th February, 2010

Citizens Project has been following the dangerous extremism on the Texas Board of Education over the last several months. It exploded in the national press yesterday with this cover story in The New York Times Magazine.

The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!”

Citizens Project will keep monitoring local schools to prevent this from happening here. Please let us know if you hear of any inappropriate politicizing we should be aware of.

Thanks to our friends at the Texas Freedom Network for fighting the Texas takeover.

Religious tolerance and public space: Jesus is Alive?

10th February, 2010

When local controversy erupts, we don’t have to take our cues from the partisan, uncivil tone dominating national policy debates. After all, Colorado Springs has learned a thing or two from Amendment 2, the Moo campaign, and the Ted Haggard scandal to name a few. We’ve learned that calling other people intolerant does not “Create Community”.

The “Jesus is Alive!” banners on city-owned light poles in downtown Colorado Springs raise high emotions among residents, whether Christian, Jewish or Atheist.   Some people see them as just another example of the city thumbing its nose at anyone who does not subscribe to the majority religion. Others view any objection to the banners as liberal intolerance of a positive Christian message. Are either of these really true? Rather than hunker down into our comfortable, adversarial positions, Citizens Project says let’s focus on finding our common ground. After all, our nation really is the global beacon of religious freedom, so let’s reach for our highest selves.

Surely, you may ask, doesn’t our community have more important issues to tackle right now, such as homelessness and drastic budget cuts? It’s a reasonable question, but don’t forget we are talking about the First Amendment; how our diverse residents share the public space together. And more practically, our city’s land use division is required to adopt a code to define who gets banners in the public right of way, since none currently exists.

As a dedicated local watchdog for religious freedom and separation of church and state, Citizens Project wants to lead the way in working with community members to find our common ground. We are reaching out to leaders representing diverse perspectives. Let’s listen respectfully to each others’ point of view, and try to put aside our preconceptions of each others’ motives. We may still disagree in the end, but we’ll understand one another more, and hopefully create real community. Who knows, we might even become a national model for how to have civil debate on core community values. Let’s bring together our Christian, Jewish, Atheist, and other faith communities to build bridges, and bury our national reputation as the “Gettysburg of the culture wars”.

We welcome your ideas! Please comment here or send an email to Citizens Project’s Executive Director Barb Van Hoy. Let the conversation begin.

City’s Light Pole Banner Story on KRDO

20th January, 2010

Here’s Tak Landrock’s story about the banner issue:

KRDO Banner Story

Citizens Project is working to ensure that the U.S. Constitution’s religious freedom guarantees are upheld in the new city’s code regulating such banners.

Extra! Extra! Read our most recent Freedom Watch Online!

28th December, 2009

Hear what Citizens Project executive director Barb Van Hoy has to say about our nation’s founding principles, read about religious freedom in the United States, and catch up on the latest Plus One news! Check out the December edition of Freedom Watch Online!

The December Dilemma – Inclusive Holiday Practices for Public Schools

5th December, 2009

Every year Citizens Project sends The December Dilemma to local public schools. It is a primer on inclusive holiday practices for public schools produced by the Anti-Defamation League.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects religious freedom by not only guaranteeing “the free exercise thereof”, but also by prohibiting our government from endorsing religion (“respecting an establishment of religion”). The December Dilemma provides expert guidance to schools on how the courts have interpreted religious liberty protections for students and staff, to ensure school holiday activities are not only legal, but inclusive and respectful of the great diversity of our country.

Download a PDF of The December Dilemma here.

Religious freedom victory: Court rejects public school religious speech

17th November, 2009

ANOTHER victory for religious freedom!

“The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a student who complained that high school officials violated her constitutional rights when they turned off her microphone during her religion-tinged graduation speech.”

This ruling makes a very important distinction about how the Constitution protects religious freedom for ALL public school students. When they are a captive audience at an official school function such as graduation, it is not OK to preach to them. An Appeals Court deemed her speech to be “proselytizing.” Everyone, including this student, is free to hold their own beliefs and to preach to others, but not by co-opting a public school function. No one has that right. Taxpayers are funding the school and the graduation, so it is not appropriate or fair to turn it into a church service.  This would apply equally to a student attempting to give an Islamic, Buddhist or Atheist sermon at a public school event.

Not surprisingly, the Religious Right is calling this censorship and discrimination.