Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 130, No. 60, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 21, 2019 Page: 4 of 10
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4 - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2019
GAINESVILLE DAILY REGISTER
Opinion
EDITORIAL BOARD: Lisa Chappell, publisher; Sarah Einselen, editor
TODAY'S EDITORIAL CARTOON
FREEDOM/.
'Uj
r
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Cooke County Attorney Ed Zielinksi
YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
J
The law protects
your right to worship
President
Donald Trump
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
Washington, D.C. 20500
www.whitehouse.gov/contact
U.S. Senator
John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington,
FIRST AMENDMENT: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
State Representative
Drew Springer
P.O. Box 2910, Austin, TX 78769
D.C. 20510
Main: 202-224-2934, Fax: 202-228-2856
www.cornyn.senate.gov
Hope for a fatality-free holiday
During this time of year we all look forward to the holiday season, the gatherings of friends and family, the parties at work and
the travel that goes along with all this celebration. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day are traditionally times
spent enjoying one another's company.
Good times can become disasters when the process of celebration gets carried away. Of the 870 traffic fatalities involving
alcohol in Texas in 2018,57% were under the age of 35 years.
Those people will never have another earthly celebration with friends and family; they will never have another birthday, see
their children grow up or enjoy their retirement.
We can all do our part to reduce the tragic consequences of alcohol abuse. We can be responsible in our celebrating, we can
look out for one another and we can make sure that if someone has over indulged, they get home safely with a sober driver.
We are blessed in this nation with freedoms other people in the world only dream of and for that we are all thankful. Freedom
comes with responsibility, and that includes being responsible for our behavior and that of others.
Let's make this a fatality-free season in Cooke County. Let us celebrate the blessings bestowed on our nation; the birth of our
Savior and the hope of a new year.
512-463-0526, Gainesville: 940-580-1770
www.house.state.tx.us/members/
Vice President
Mike Pence
Executive Office Building, Washington,
D.C.20501
vice_president@whitehouse.gov
U.S. Senator
Ted Cruz
404 Russell, Washington, D.C. 20510
Main: 202-224-5922, Fax: 202-228-3398
www.cruz.senate.gov
U.S. Representative
Mac M. Thornberry
2525 Kell Blvd., Wichita Falls, TX, 76308
Main: 202-225-3706, Fax: 202-225-3486
thornberry.house.gov
Texas Governor
Greg Abbott
P.O. Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711
512-463-2000
http://gov.texas.gov
State Senator
Pat Fallon
P.O. Box 12068, Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711
940-898-0331
Cooke County Judge
Jason Brinkley
Cooke County Courthouse, Gainesville,
TX, 76240
940-668-5435
jason.brinkley@co.cooke.tx.us
Gainesville Mayor
Jim Goldsworthy
Gainesville City Hall, 200 S. Rusk,
Gainesville, TX 76240
940-665-7777
other aspects of employment, on
the basis of race, color, religion, sex
(including pregnancy), or national
origin. Religious discrimination
includes failing to reasonably
accommodate an employee’s
religious practices where the accommodation does
not impose undue hardship.”
This is our law. Yet every day many businesses
in our community discriminate against applicants
and employees. The most common form of
discrimination is the refusal to make reasonable
accommodation for employees to be off for church
on Sunday. Employers demand workers must
be available on Sunday mornings to be hired
for a position. Workers are told they may not be
considered for a promotion if they are not available
on Sunday. Other employers may harass workers
who request off on Sunday mornings by continually
pressuring them to work this Sunday.
This behavior is surely not from malice. Business
owners and managers naturally must try to cover
shifts when their business is open. Many seem to
be unaware of the fact that the law requires them
to provide this simple accommodation. The courts
have almost always upheld requests for time off to
attend worship services as reasonable. But whether
from ignorance of the law or an unwillingness to
comply, workers in our community are being asked
to either violate their conscience or give up hope of
gaining or keeping the job necessary to provide for
their families.
Some may object that providing a day off
gives special treatment to certain employees.
We provide special accommodations for those
with physical disabilities. We do so because we
believe in the inherent dignity of every individual.
We feel that making such accommodations
makes our society better. We occasionally make
special accommodations for minorities that have
historically been discriminated against for the same
reasons. Providing this minor accommodation
for those with sincerely held religious beliefs
benefits society as well. It allows each person to live
according to the dictates of their conscience. Asking
people to violate their conscience in such deeply
held beliefs is harmful to all society. After all, if a
person can be made to violate their conscience in
this, what other areas will he or she compromise in?
Most professional jobs require our labor Monday
through Friday. It is in our lower-paying service
positions that this discrimination is most common.
Do we want to live in a society where only those of
greater means can afford to worship according to
their conscience? Do we want to deny basic human
rights to those who provide the common services we
all rely on? Does the cashier at the grocery store or
the waitress not deserve to sit beside us in worship?
What can we do? Business owners and managers
must be made more aware of the laws that protect
our rights. Our ministers and religious leaders
should aid those in their congregations. They
can reach out to make businesses aware of their
obligations as employers. Consumers should voice
our support for local businesses, especially those
who make the difficult choice to allow their best
employees time off during some of the busiest shifts
of the week. And employees and applicants should
be willing to speak up and politely assert their
rights.
The labor law poster advises those who believe
they have been discriminated against to contact
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
at 1-800-669-6820 or to visit their website at www.
eeoc.gov. Protecting the rights of others ultimately
safeguards our own rights. Let us stand together
as a community so that everyone may worship
according to their own conscience.
James Poteet II is an elder and pursuing a call to ministry at Westminster
Presbyterian Church. He and his wife live in Gainesville.
Shelly Kuehn
Impeach who?
If you thought Agatha Christie’s popular whodunits
wove tangled webs, don’t look now because the ongoing
congressional impeachment hearings seem to have
come straight from her pen. Now all that’s needed is for
that talented writer to unravel it for us.
Would that both sides were as genteel and civil in
their disagreements as Christie’s prose. I may hate
your opinions but I still like you a lot as a person. Why
don’t we all agree to disagree, at least until the 2020
election?
Still, I’ve questioned several Republicans’ defense of
the Trump-Ukraine deal. First was that whiney demand
that “you can’t impeach a duly elected president.”
That’s wrong.
Our forefathers knew politicians well enough to
include Article II, Section 4 in the Constitution
“that The President, Vice President and all
Civil Officers of the United States, shall be
removed from Office on Impeachment for, and
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery or other high
Crimes and Misdemeanors.” What else could
they do to get a full blown nutjob out of office?
This is the third “duly elected president”
that has faced a congressional hearing to
account for their actions. During the last one,
citizens learned a whole lot more than they
really wanted to know.
Like, no one ever caught Mrs. Clinton wearing a blue
dress in public afterward.
Trump’s defense team is trying hard to connect Joe
Biden to crimes, but that hypocrisy is cringeworthy.
The president’s whole family serves as Cabinet
advisers or in other high positions, yet he goes ballistic
at other politicos helping unskilled family get hired.
Time to reinstate that old-timey ban on nepotism for
everyone.
Then there’s Trump’s Marie Antoinette attitude.
“Subpoena me? You’re kidding, right?” That Rule
of Law keeps biting him on the tookus. He instructs
his phalanx of lawyers to ignore every federal or
state court order by pleading executive privilege as a
presidential right. That’s where the term “lawyer up”
came from, when even lawyers need separate counsel.
So far Trump has stonewalled $7.3 million owed to the
District of Columbia for inaugural expense overruns, so
he’s probably hoping those legal bills go away, too.
That brings up the emoluments clause. I call it the
stealing clause, because getting money for doing
nothing is simply theft. Besides being against the
law constitutionally, President Trump doesn’t think
it applies to him. He took an oath not to use his high
office for personal gain, but he hasn’t stopped trying to
fill those hotel rooms at resorts around the world.
It’s not against the law for a president to be rich, but
Act of 1964, as amended, protects
applicants and employees from
discrimination in hiring, promotion,
discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job
training, classification, referral, and I
............................I
James Poteet II
Since our nation’s beginning, we have recognized
the right of every person to freely practice their
religion. We have recognized the importance of
allowing all to develop the spiritual life. We value
such virtues as charity, integrity and the equality of
all people. These flourish among people who care
for more than just the material concerns of this
life. Among those who give some thought to their
Creator. We all benefit from this, whether you are a
Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist or even an atheist.
For this reason, our laws protect from
discrimination against those who practice religion.
Our laws do not promote any particular religion,
but they ensure that those with sincere religious
beliefs will not suffer discrimination in employment.
Every workplace must display a notice informing
employees of their rights under these laws. This
notice usually reads, “Title VII of the Civil Rights
ft
Tw A-A Mr
why didn’t an ethical one get elected? That’s probably
a clue why those tax returns have also been ignored
despite promises to deliver them.
A news anchor’s comment about Trump’s ill-timed
tweets triggered a historical fact that seems pertinent.
During the Civil War, if a wealthy Confederate chose
not to fight (sound familiar?) he would hire a surrogate
to take his place in the regiment forming, often for one
or more Silver Eagle ($1,000) coins. When the contract
was made, it often was sealed by the landowner
shooting himself in the foot to prove he was unable
to fight. If his mercenary returned alive from battle
to claim the balance of his contract, the landowner
might lose another toe if he couldn’t pay the balance.
“Shooting oneself in the foot” became a metaphor.
Impeachment from office resembles what
annulment is to marriage. A duly elected
president takes a vow just like a duly married
couple. But divorces happen. Even the Catholic
Church allows annulments under certain
circumstances, and evangelicals frequent Las
Vegas wedding chapels after untying one knot,
often regularly. What makes a presidential
impeachment so different?
Voters have gotten things wrong as often as
politicians have kissed ugly babies. Politics has
skewed campaigns so badly that voters often
don’t have a snowball’s chance to elect the candidate
they really want. Voters are far more patient and
usually suffer the fools they elect, so this third national
crisis in history stands out because all have happened
in the last 60 years. What does that tell us?
This time the “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” are
just as egregious as the Constitution’s punctuation.
While it’s unlikely Trump’s record of 12,000 recorded
lies in three years will cause removal, other devious
actions supply at least 10,000 other reasons he should
not be the leader of this country. His Raisons with
Russia, China, North Korea and Turkey make this
American queasy, wondering who’s left to come save us
after trashing NATO.
Republicans and Democrats alike should take a deep
breath about now, because the odds of an impeachment
by the Senate are small. Whatever the results of this
hearing, the partisan divide will continue as Donald J.
Trump blunders his way toward November 2020.
It is what it is. Justice won’t prevail until voters
speak. May an extra million more of them come out
than voted in 2016.
That’s my two cents preparing for Thanksgiving,
which we all should celebrate for having a country
worth fighting for.
Shelly Kuehn is a resident of Cooke County and a volunteer on the Gainesville
Daily Register's 2019 reader advisory board.
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Einselen, Sarah. Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 130, No. 60, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 21, 2019, newspaper, November 21, 2019; Gainesville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1324558/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Cooke County Library.