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KITSAP SUN « Friday, <strong>March</strong> 6, <strong>2015</strong> «7A<br />

Opinion<br />

SHAREYOURTHOUGHTS<br />

Respondtoeditorials,letterstotheeditor<br />

and columnists. kitsapsun.com<br />

The law’s hand<br />

just got heavier<br />

What does government<br />

overreach look like? It goes<br />

further than the annoying<br />

nannystatewhichIwrote<br />

about last week. Two prominent<br />

examples of it recently<br />

appeared in the news, one<br />

dealingwithflowerarrangementsandtheotherwitha<br />

dial phone.<br />

When can you be required<br />

to create something artistic<br />

against your will? According<br />

toaBentonCountySuperior<br />

Court Judge the answer is<br />

anytimeyourinactionoffends<br />

another party wanting you to<br />

supporttheiractions,evenif<br />

youdisagreewiththem.<br />

This case has been describedasasimplediscriminationcasebutit’smuchmore<br />

thanthat.In<strong>March</strong>,2013,<br />

RobertIngersoll,alongtime<br />

customer of Arlene’s FlowersandGiftsinRichland,<br />

Washington,askedfloristand<br />

owner Barronelle Stutzman<br />

to create floral arrangements<br />

for his same-sex wedding. She<br />

was aware Mr. Ingersoll was<br />

gayandhadpreviouslymade<br />

holiday arrangements for him<br />

and his partner, but declined<br />

to do so for his wedding because,<br />

“according to her relationship<br />

with Jesus Christ,”<br />

shebelievedamarriagewas<br />

onlyaunionbetweenaman<br />

and a woman. She offered to<br />

sell him flowers if someone<br />

else would arrange them or,<br />

if that wouldn’t do, she gave<br />

him the names of several floristswhowouldbehappyto<br />

accommodate his needs.<br />

Thealternativessuggested<br />

byMs.Stutzmanweren’tgood<br />

enough because Mr. Ingersoll<br />

andhispartnersuedunder<br />

theConsumerProtectionAct,<br />

which prohibits “discriminationagainstcustomersonthe<br />

basisofsexualorientation.”<br />

The Washington Chapter of<br />

the American Civil Liberties<br />

Union along with the State<br />

Attorney General, who also<br />

sued Ms. Stutzman personally,joinedthesuit.<br />

However, she never declined<br />

to provide flowers to<br />

these customers because<br />

they were gay. Creating artistic<br />

floral arrangements would<br />

haveforcedhertoparticipate<br />

in their wedding and she refused<br />

to do so because of her<br />

religious beliefs.<br />

TheBentonCountyJudge’s<br />

opinion will be appealed<br />

by the Alliance Defending<br />

Freedom organization. The<br />

Judge’srulingalsoindicated<br />

Ms. Stutzman can be sued<br />

personally which will financially<br />

destroy her along with<br />

herfamily-runflowershop<br />

of 47 years. It’s hard to understand<br />

how her attempted<br />

accommodation for a client<br />

mayleadtoherfinancialruin.<br />

Apparently the law now commandsparticipationinevents<br />

against the specific religious<br />

beliefsofafellowcitizen.<br />

And it’s heartbreaking her<br />

proposed accommodation<br />

wasn’t met with similar consideration<br />

on the part of her<br />

customers.<br />

———<br />

Morethan20yearsagoour<br />

seven-year-old niece was visiting<br />

and wanted to telephone<br />

herfather.Wehadanextra<br />

hard-wired phone she could<br />

useandaftershowingherthe<br />

EDITORIAL POLICY<br />

The <strong>Kitsap</strong> <strong>Sun</strong>’s editorial opinions are shaped by the editor and<br />

opinion editor in consultation with the editorial board. Editorials,<br />

whichrepresenttheopinionofthe<strong>Kitsap</strong><strong>Sun</strong>,arewrittenbythe<br />

editor or the opinion editor.<br />

LETTERS POLICY<br />

Letters should be 250 words or shorter, neatly typewritten.<br />

The <strong>Kitsap</strong> <strong>Sun</strong> reserves the right to reject, edit or condense all letters.<br />

Mass submissions are not accepted and writers are generally limited to<br />

oneletteramonth.Alllettersmustincludethewriter’sfirstnameand<br />

(for our verification) address and daytime phone number.<br />

By mail: LetterstotheEditor<br />

P.O.Box259,Bremerton,WA98337<br />

Phone: 360-415-2679<br />

EDITORIAL BOARD<br />

Martha Burke<br />

SUQUAMISH<br />

Drayton Jackson<br />

BREMERTON<br />

DAVID NELSON<br />

EDITOR<br />

JIM CAMPBELL<br />

OPINION EDITOR EMERITUS<br />

phonewelefttheroom,only<br />

toseeherwalkingoutwitha<br />

confused look on her face. She<br />

couldn’tfigureouthowtouse<br />

it because she’d never seen a<br />

rotary-dial phone before.<br />

Ithoughtofthisamusing<br />

episodewhenIheardthe<br />

Federal Communications<br />

Commission (FCC) decided,<br />

along party lines, to adopt the<br />

misleadingterm“net-neutrality”toimplementgovernment<br />

oversightoftheInternet,at<br />

this time broadband service<br />

providers.<br />

Their vehicle of choice in<br />

implementingthispowergrab<br />

was reclassifying broadband<br />

access (Internet Service Providers,orISPs)asatelecommunications<br />

service and applying<br />

the constraints of Title<br />

II(commoncarrier)ofthe<br />

Communications Act of 1934,<br />

signed into law by President<br />

FranklinD.RooseveltonJune<br />

19, 1934.<br />

Supposedly this reclassification<br />

was necessary to guaranteethefreedomoftheInternetandtoassureISPsactin<br />

the “public interest” and don’t<br />

engagein“unjustorunreasonablebusinesspractices.”<br />

According to net-neutrality<br />

believers all data must be<br />

treated equally regardless of<br />

how much bandwidth is used.<br />

ButitwastheISPsthatspent<br />

billions of dollars creating the<br />

networks,notthecontentproducers.<br />

There’s hardly a lack<br />

of competition, which was<br />

anotherexcuseusedforthe<br />

regulation.<br />

This once independent<br />

commission appears to have<br />

bowedtothewishesofPresident<br />

Obama who suggested<br />

the FCC pass net-neutrality.<br />

Before that time the FCC<br />

Chairman opposed utility<br />

regulation of the Internet in<br />

keepingwithwhathadbeen<br />

done for several decades. But<br />

with less than two years left<br />

in his presidency President<br />

Obama continues to grab<br />

asmuchashecanoftheenginesofcommercetoputundercontrolofadministrative<br />

regulators.<br />

The FCC said some of the<br />

Title II sections, like price<br />

controls and content oversight,won’tbeappliednow.<br />

But there’s no promise that<br />

won’thappeninthefuture.<br />

It’satragedythesuccessfully<br />

run, innovative Internet now<br />

faces the regulations originally<br />

applied to Ma Bell 80<br />

years ago.<br />

Afterpassingnet-neutrality<br />

theFCCChairmansaid,“This<br />

isnomoreaplantoregulate<br />

the Internet than the First<br />

Amendmentisaplantoregulate<br />

free speech ...” If so, why<br />

didittake332pagestosay<br />

they “won’t” regulate the Internet<br />

and why haven’t those<br />

regulations been released to<br />

thepublicyet?<br />

COMMUNITY MEMBERS<br />

Jim Stark<br />

GRAPEVIEW<br />

PAM<br />

DZAMA<br />

COMMUNITY COLUMNIST<br />

Contact Pam Dzama at pdzama@<br />

gmail.com.<br />

Susanne Hughes<br />

BREMERTON<br />

Bart Kale<br />

SEABECK<br />

Fax: 360-415-2681<br />

Web: www.kitsapsun.com<br />

Email: letters@kitsapsun.com<br />

Spiritualdoubtacceptedmoretoday<br />

Every other Saturday,<br />

this newspaper carries a<br />

column by Bill Tinsley, a<br />

former associate director<br />

fortheBaptistGeneralConventionofTexas.<br />

In his February 14 column,<br />

he wrote about the Ebola<br />

outbreak in Africa and<br />

the panic it caused in this<br />

country when two people<br />

diedandafewotherswere<br />

stricken but recovered.<br />

Oneofthosewhosurvived,<br />

Dr. Kent Brantly,<br />

attributedhisrecoveryto<br />

the prayers of the people<br />

praying over him directly,<br />

tootherpeopleprayingfor<br />

him outside his house, and<br />

to thousands more, maybe<br />

millions, some of whom<br />

were praying via the website<br />

praytoendebola.org.<br />

Therationalmindasks,<br />

How can we be sure it was<br />

prayer that did the trick?<br />

CanGodbetheonlyexplanation,ormightthere<br />

be other causes of the recoveries?<br />

And how can we<br />

explainthethousandswho<br />

were prayed over but who<br />

died anyway?<br />

Tinsley inadvertently<br />

raises a similar question<br />

when he tells the story from<br />

thebookofLukeaboutJesuscuring10lepers.We<br />

presume that Jesus prayed<br />

over the lepers, but how certaincanwebethatprayer<br />

didthetrickwhenthereare<br />

several forms of leprosy,<br />

some of which regress on<br />

their own?<br />

And why didn’t he deal<br />

with some of the other<br />

troublesomediseasesofthe<br />

time — dropsy, epilepsy, insanity,worms,itch,andso<br />

on?<br />

Just below Tinsley’s columnonEbolaandprayer<br />

LETTERS<br />

ROB<br />

WOUTAT<br />

Noel C. Sim, Bremerton<br />

United effort for new<br />

AgatePassBridge<br />

The contrasting impacts, from favorable<br />

to unfavorable, the new Agate<br />

PassBridgemayhaveonentitieswith<br />

linkagetothisspanremindsoneof<br />

theadage,“oneman’smeatisanother<br />

man’spoison.”(“Isalargercorridorin<br />

Bainbridge’s future?” Feb. 22)<br />

Thisproblemwillonlygetworse<br />

withpublicopinion,aseachentitywill<br />

proposewhatbenefitsthemtothedetrimentofothers.Thisisoneinstance<br />

wherethestateDepartmentofTransportationmuststepinandassertits<br />

rightstoensurethatitsactionisforthe<br />

greatest good for the greatest number<br />

of residents in the region affected by<br />

this bridge.<br />

Asolutionisforaunitedeffort<br />

amongentitiesaffectedbythisbridge<br />

— which includes the state DOT, <strong>Kitsap</strong><br />

County, Bainbridge Island, Suquamish<br />

Tribe, etc. — not only to agree<br />

uponadesign,buttosecurefunding<br />

for agreed-upon projects. The<br />

WestSoundAllianceisagoodstart<br />

where all the above-mentioned entities<br />

should bind together and agree<br />

tobeboundbywhateverboard,commission<br />

or authority created for this<br />

undertaking will decide based on<br />

studies and recommendations of the<br />

traffic engineering consultants engagedforthisproject.Inallthese,the<br />

state must exercise leadership in the<br />

COMMUNITY COLUMNIST<br />

is an AP article about John<br />

Delin,alifelongMormon<br />

who was excommunicated<br />

fromtheChurchofLatter<br />

Day Saints for operating a<br />

website (Mormonstories.<br />

org) on which he opposed<br />

church doctrine and allegedly<br />

encouraged others to<br />

doubt.(AchurchspokesmansaidDelin’ssupport<br />

of same-sex marriage was<br />

notthereasonforhisbanishment.)<br />

We adopt a certain religionandchurcheitherbecausewewerebornintoit<br />

or because we find that its<br />

religious precepts and practices<br />

are in line with our<br />

own.Butifwefindthatthe<br />

fitisn’tperfect,whatthen?<br />

The consequences of<br />

heresy vary dramatically,<br />

with the most fearsome occurring<br />

in predominantly<br />

Islamcountries.Although<br />

notstatedintheQuran,the<br />

traditional consequence of<br />

leaving the Islamic faith<br />

isdeath,andanumberof<br />

Quranicverseshavebeen<br />

interpreted by religious<br />

scholars as justification<br />

for executing apostates.<br />

(“Whosoever turns back<br />

fromhisbelief,openlyor<br />

secretly,takehimandkill<br />

him wheresoever ye find<br />

him, like any other infidel.”)<br />

TheTorah,iftakenliterally,isequallyunforgiving<br />

of heretics. If somebody<br />

says to you, “Let us go and<br />

serve other gods … thou<br />

shaltsurelykillhim…thou<br />

shalt stone him with stones,<br />

that he die; because he hath<br />

sought to thrust thee away<br />

fromtheLORDthyGod…”<br />

TheBiblewarnsagainst<br />

“wandering off into myths,”<br />

following false prophets,<br />

and risking “chains<br />

of gloomy darkness to be<br />

kept until judgment” and,<br />

ultimately, destruction.<br />

ButsincetheInquisitionin<br />

Europe and the days when<br />

hard-line Puritans crushed<br />

to death people they believed<br />

to have been seized<br />

bythedevil,mostChristiansandJewshaverelaxed<br />

their hostility toward other<br />

believers, although Jehovah’s<br />

Witnesses shun or<br />

“disfellowship” those who<br />

disagree with their teachings<br />

and consider apostates<br />

as “mentally diseased,”<br />

and polls show that most<br />

Americans still disapprove<br />

of atheists (but disapprove<br />

muchlessofpeoplewhodescribe<br />

themselves as “nontheists”).<br />

Hindus,havingnoconcept<br />

of apostasy, may be<br />

the most advanced and<br />

accepting of all, allowing<br />

the individual complete<br />

implementation of this process.<br />

This approach will attest to another<br />

adage, “Rising tides will raise<br />

all boats.”<br />

JudyArbogast,Port Orchard<br />

Food assistance a<br />

critical need in state<br />

Thisweekanumberofpeoplewere<br />

in Olympia handing out bananas to our<br />

legislatorstoremindthemthatthere<br />

arepeopleinthisstatewhoarefood<br />

insecure. Our Legislature has made<br />

cutsof25percenttofoodassistance<br />

programs. With 30,000 students in our<br />

schoolswhoarehomelessandwiththe<br />

minimumwagenotkeepingupwith<br />

thecostofliving,fartoomanypeople<br />

inourstatearestrugglingjusttofeed<br />

their families.<br />

Childrenofourstatearetheones<br />

who are suffering. The lack of food affectsallaspectsoftheirlife,fromfailuretothrivetolackofconcentration<br />

and inability to learn. Children with<br />

food insecurity are more susceptible<br />

to illness.<br />

The discrepancy between the<br />

wealthyandthepoorisincreasing.We<br />

need legislators who will help solve<br />

theseissuesthroughpolicychanges.<br />

Itiscurrentpolicieswhicharesupportingtheseinequitiesanditmust<br />

be through new policies that we allow<br />

thepeopleofourstatemoreequitable<br />

access to the basics of living.<br />

Wearestilloftenguided<br />

largelybymythsand<br />

afflictedbyprejudice,andmay<br />

always be, but on the whole<br />

we’renotaseagertoteareach<br />

other’s throats out over<br />

differences of belief and<br />

appearance, and that has to<br />

count for progress.”<br />

freedom to leave the faith,<br />

believing that all sincere<br />

faith leads ultimately to<br />

thesameGod.In“Apostasy<br />

in Islam,” Rudolph Peters<br />

andJJdeVrieswrite“…<br />

no country with Christian,<br />

Buddhist,Hindu…agnosticoratheistmajorityhad<br />

anycriminalorcivillaws<br />

forbidding or encouraging<br />

apostasy, or had laws<br />

restricting an individual’s<br />

right to convert from one<br />

religion to another.”<br />

People who keep track<br />

of these things report that<br />

therehasbeenariseinreligious<br />

intolerance in the<br />

most recent years, but over<br />

thousandsofyearsourspecies,<br />

strict Islamists aside,<br />

hasshownsomeimprovement<br />

in its willingness to<br />

acknowledge and tolerate<br />

other religious beliefs.<br />

Wearestilloftenguided<br />

largelybymythsandafflicted<br />

by prejudice, and<br />

mayalwaysbe,butonthe<br />

wholewe’renotaseagerto<br />

tear each other’s throats out<br />

over differences of belief<br />

andappearance,andthat<br />

has to count for progress.<br />

Contact Rob Woutat at<br />

rwoutat@gmail.com.<br />

I encourage everyone to contact<br />

yourlegislatorstosupportastate<br />

budget that will ease this inequalityinourstate.TheHousebillsthat<br />

passed this week for increasing the<br />

minimumwageandforallowingsick<br />

days from work are a start in the right<br />

direction.<br />

Petra Hellthaler, Bremerton<br />

Withoutgovernment,<br />

there’s no Internet<br />

MayIpleasemakeasuggestionto<br />

Dale Harmon regarding his letter “Net<br />

neutralityrulethepreludetotaxes”?<br />

(<strong>March</strong> 3)<br />

He states that “The Internet is one<br />

of the greatest technological advancements<br />

in modern history” followed by<br />

“…withlittleornogovernmentinvolvement.”<br />

HeobviouslyhasaccesstotheInternetandIsuggestheuseasearch<br />

enginetolearnabouttheroleofDAR-<br />

PA,ARPANETandNSFNETandof<br />

governmentagenciessuchastheDepartmentofDefenseandtheNational<br />

Science Foundation in creating and<br />

funding the Internet.<br />

Without the government, there<br />

wouldbenoInternet.AlGore,who<br />

said he “took the initiative in creating<br />

theInternet,”wasreferringtohisrole<br />

asamajorsupporterandleaderinassuring<br />

the funding and development<br />

of the Internet.

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