Rob Sherman 
Click on photo Click on photo
for larger image for larger image
Rob Sherman 
Airplanes Concerts
Delivery Travel AgencyMore: Contact information About Rob The Sherman-ator Rob's Airplane
Latest Updates
Saturday, June 13: The Next Rob Sherman Concerts show will be Friday, July 10th: Brock and Abrams at Louie's Chop House in Shorewood, Illinois, just west of Joliet on US 52, a quarter mile west of IL Route 59. For details, see Rob Sherman Concerts.
Thursday, June 4: Sherman hired to write for Chicago Tribune Media Group. The Chicago Tribune Media Group has started a new internet-based columnist service called Chicago Now. They are in the process of hiring eighty of the Chicago area's leading experts to write about their fields of expertise. I've been hired to write about atheism and state/church separation, and to offer my opinions on the hot social and political issues of the day. My column is called Godless in Chicago.
Saturday, March 7:
Illinois Senate Education Committee rejects secular "Moment of Silence" law.
You'll be amused and intrigued by some of what I've been involved with in
Springfield during the past month, regarding "Moment of Silence" laws.
For a brief background on how a law gets enacted, a legislator proposes
(sponsors) a Bill to amend or repeal a law or to create a new law. The Bill
gets assigned to a Committee that specializes in that area of the law. The
Committee consists of from five to about twenty members of that house of the
legislature. The Sponsor presents the Bill, and the reasons why it should be
adopted, to the Committee at a hearing. Members of the public (that's where I
come in) can also testify, either as a proponent or an opponent. If a majority
of the members of the Committee votes "Do Pass," the Bill goes on to the full
House of Representatives or Senate for debate and a vote. If it passes in that
house, it gets sent to the other house for the same committee and full house
treatment. If it survives there, too, it gets sent to the Governor for his
signature to become law, or veto. If vetoed and if both houses override the
veto, the Bill becomes law over the Governor's objection.
On January 22nd,
State Representative John Fritchey proposed
House Bill 288 to change the unconstitutional
"Moment of Silence" law from mandatory (crossed out text in the Bill) to
voluntary (underlined text in the Bill) and to delete all references to religion
and prayer. On February 10th, the House
Elementary and Secondary Education Committee held a hearing on the Bill.
I testified as a proponent in support of the Bill. The Committee voted
"Do Pass," 13 in favor, 6 opposed and 1 voting present. The Bill is
now pending in the full House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, and here is where the fun begins, on February 19th, State Senator and
new Assistant Majority Leader
Kimberly
Lightford proposed
Senate Bill 1658. Senator Lightford is the same legislator who, two
years ago, proposed 95th General Assembly
Senate Bill 1463, which was
enacted into law and which changed the
Moment of Silence from voluntary to mandatory. The new Senate Bill
1658 would reinstate the law as mandatory, but would delete any reference to
religion or prayer, would allow students to silently reflect on any topic of
their choice, and would specify that the time would not exceed
one minute.
On February 25th, Senate Bill 1658 was assigned to the
Senate Education Committee. This past Wednesday, Senator Lightford
presented the Bill to the Education Committee. I shocked Senator Lightford by
testifying in support of the
Bill as a proponent, because the Bill would make the law truly secular and
because it would moot out Attorney General Lisa Madigan's appeal of my victory
regarding
the current law. However, I did make it clear that I preferred the Fritchey
Bill, but that either Bill would accomplish the purpose of ensuring that any law
regarding this topic would be secular. Also, I asked my daughter, Dawn,
how she felt about the proposed Senate Bill, and she didn't have a problem with
it because it would be truly secular, although she, too, preferred the Fritchey
Bill.
Guess who testified as opponents to Senate Bill 1658? All of the conservative
and Christian lobbyists who had previously testified in support of making the
law mandatory, because that law had the unconstitutional effect that they
wanted, which was to sneak religion and prayer into the classroom. That's
the law that I got declared unconstitutional. Why did they testify as opponents
of SB 1658? For exactly the same reason that I testified as a proponent: It
would make the law secular, and that's exactly what they don't what. They want
a law which sneaks religion and prayer into the public schools, while they
pretend that the law would have purely secular effect. Instead, the
conservatives and Christians want Lisa Madigan to pursue and to win the appeal
of the unconstitutional law, in an appellate court that has a reputation of
being as radically right wing and conservative as the witnesses who "slipped the
Bill" (Springfield lingo for filing a Witness Slip in a Committee hearing) as
opponents.
What this demonstrates is that the Christians and conservatives truly were
faking it when they've said that a mandatory "Moment of Silence" law was purely
an impartial, secular way to allow the Christian kids to pray if they want,
because when a Bill that actually and genuinely provided for that was proposed,
they all opposed it.
The members of the Education Committee then began to vote. After four Senators
voted against SB 1658, citing the same reasons that the conservatives and
Christians indicated above, Senator Lightford pulled the Bill from consideration
to avoid further embarrassment.
At least, now we know that the Moment of Silence law has nothing
to do with religious freedom. It's all about Christians sneaking prayer into
the public school classroom while denying the obvious.
The Chicago Tribune published an
article about all this in their online edition, yesterday, entitled
No more pretending: "Silence" law is all about encouraging prayer in the
public schools. The article is supposed to run in their newsprint
editions tomorrow.
Monday, February 2: Dawn Sherman ranks #1 in the Class of 2011, again! The first semester report cards are out, and sophomore Dawn Sherman ranks #1, yet again, in Buffalo Grove High School's Class of 2011. As she has since first entering BGHS, Dawn has scored an A for her semester grade in all of her academic classes. Dawn did get her first B -- in her gym class. Last year, she even got an A in gym for both semesters. What an athlete! Dawn, however, remains the Premiere Academic Machine of Buffalo Grove High School. Her unweighted Grade Point Average (GPA) is a perfect 5.0, good for a Class Rank of # 1 out of 533 students. Her weighted GPA is 5.53, good for a weighted Class rank of # 2, due to a student transferring in from another school that offered more honors or Advanced Placement (AP) classes during freshman year, although amongst all students who have attended BGHS exclusively, Dawn is # 1 in both weighted and unweighted rank.
Dawn's classes during the first semester were: Dance (gym class set to music, I guess), Advanced Placement World History (do you think President George Duh-bya Bush could have kept up with Dawn in that class?), Human Growth and Child Development (no, not sex ed. Dawn wants to be a high school biology teacher "and a division head to make more money" when she graduates from one of Illinois' Big Ten universities, so this class pertains to the phases children go through as they grow up), Honors World Literature and Composition (must be reading and writing class, another one in which Duh-bya would never have been able to keep up with Dawn), Honors Chemistry (remember the Periodic Table of the Elements? There are a lot more elements, now, than when I went to school. It seems as though they keep inventing new elements, so there are more elements for today's kids to remember than I had to), Information Processing (oh, I know what that is. That's where they learn how to use a typewriter and a slide rule, punch IBM cards, operate a record player and an 8-track machine, learn the difference between the VHF dial and the UHF dial on a black-and-white television, learn how to adjust the Tint and Hue dials on a color television, things like that), and Honors Geometry (it sure seems as though Dawn has all the angles covered).
Would you like to see what a report card looks like when you are that good? Click here to view Dawn's report card.
Sunday, February 1: Date set for first court hearing in Shermans' challenge to excessive public high school driver's ed fees. The case has been assigned to Cook County's Chancery Court Judge Peter Flynn. The Honorable Judge Flynn has agreed to hear our injunction request on Tuesday, February 3rd, at 11 a.m., in Room 2408 of the Daley Center in downtown Chicago, which is between Clark and Dearborn Streets and between Washington and Randolph Streets. That's 100 North and 100 West. You are welcome to attend.
Here is a report about Judge Flynn by the Chicago Council of Lawyers. Here is an unscientific blog about Judge Flynn as an instructor, purportedly by students at the John Marshall Law School (one of Chicago's top law schools). Finally, here are Judge Flynn's own words in his candidate's statement on the web site of Cook County Clerk David Orr. I will make no comment because I have litigation pending before Judge Flynn.
The attorney for defendant Township High School District 214 is Respicio F. Vazquez. It is noteworthy that he formerly was the General Counsel for defendant Illinois State Board of Education, and also formerly the State School Superintendent (see "Superintendent's Corner" at the left side of the middle of the page).
Thursday, January 29: Shermans to file another lawsuit today against High School District 214. This time, Dawn and I are challenging the widespread scam by public high schools of balancing their budgets by illegally charging high school students tuition for Driver's Ed. Rather than raising property taxes on people who can vote school board members out of office, the schools are balancing their budgets by withholding from students who aren't old enough to vote, access to their precious driver's licenses unless the students pay hundreds of dollars in fees to help cover staffing costs. This is blatantly unconstitutional, in violation of Article X, Section 1, of the Illinois Constitution, which says, in pertinent part, that "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free." The Supreme Court of Illinois has interpreted that to mean that "instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge, provides free schools." Section 27-23 of the Illinois School Code makes Driver's Ed one of the subjects covered by that requirement. Rob Sherman Advocacy. Fighting injustice, one victory at a time.
You get to follow along, right from my web site. Below are links to the significant court documents. For more detail, including the Supreme Court of Illinois precedents, see the third and fourth paragraphs of the January 21st update, below.
Saturday, January 24: Dawn Sherman video debating "Moment of Silence" victory on CLTV (the Chicago Tribune's "Chicagoland Television News" cable channel)! Watch a fabulous video of the super-intelligent and very beautiful Dawn Sherman on the Garrard McClendon Show. (I'm her Dad. I'm supposed to feel that way about her.) Before I give you the link, I need to tell you how to find the video on the linked page. When the linked page comes up, you'll see a box with the titles of the four most recent shows. The title of the show that you're looking for is GML: Moment of Silence Unconstitutional? (GML stands for "Garrard McClendon Live"). Click on that title to make the video play. If you don't see that title, there's a control slider on the right side of the box so you can slide down to see titles of previous shows. OK. Here's the link to the video playback portion of Garrard McClendon Live.
Wednesday, January 21: Sherman wins school prayer case. Federal Judge Robert Gettleman today issued a final ruling in favor of Dawn Sherman in the Illinois "Moment of Silence" case. At issue was Section 1 of the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act, which required public school teachers to stop teaching during instructional time so that children could waste class time praying to some kind of make-believe deity-parent rather than studying like they're supposed to do. Dawn, who is now 15 years old, with the help of her father, Rob Sherman, took on the entire Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois State School Superintendent and High School District 214, and won. Click here to read the 17-page decision.
There is a one-letter typo in the Associated Press story which reports this matter. The quote of me saying, " ... facts of the law" should read, "... facts or the law." The AP story appeared under the title Ill. moment of silence law ruled unconstitutional (back-up link) in the Chicago Tribune. All or part of the AP story is appearing in newspapers around the world. Click here to read Moment of Silence case decision: Judge says state law was a 'sham' in Eric Zorn's blog in the Chicago Tribune, and Rob Olmstead's story Judge sides with atheist, strikes down moment of silence law in the Daily Herald. More breaking news in the next paragraph:
Breaking News: Dawn Sherman to sue High School District 214 again. This time, it will be over District 214's unconstitutional Driver's Ed fee. The lawsuit will be filed next week on Thursday. Here are the details:
Dawn will be taking Driver's Ed during the second semester, which starts next Tuesday, January 27, 2009. District 214 charges $350 for Driver's Ed. I asked District 214 what they are using the money for. They said that $150 is for a "lab fee (my terminology for it)," to cover the cost of the cars, insurance, gas, oil, maintenance and similar, related expenses. However, $200 of the fee is to offset staffing costs. It is well established in Illinois law that you can't charge a public school student a fee for the cost of one's education. Article X, Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution states, in pertinent part, that "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free." The Illinois Supreme Court has repeatedly interpreted that to mean that public school students shall "receive instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge." See the last sentence in the second paragraph of the opinion in Segar versus the Rockford School Board, (in the linked pdf file, please flip the page 180 degrees ) 317 Ill. 418, 148 N.E. 289, 1925 Ill. LEXIS 1032, decided on June 18, 1925, and repeated by the Illinois Supreme Court in the tenth paragraph of Beck versus Harlem School District 122, (This pdf file has several cases which we are relying upon in our Driver's Ed litigation. The Beck case is pages 8 through 12, and the reference to "Segar" in "Beck" is on page 11 of my pdf ) 63 Ill. 2d 10, 344 N.E. 2d 440, 1976 Ill. LEXIS 280, decided on March 18, 1976. The Illinois Supreme Court has also ruled that schools can charge a materials fee or, as I call it, a "lab fee," for such things as towel rentals, gym uniform rentals and workbooks, which is why I'm not challenging the first $150 of the Driver's Ed fee but, clearly, District 214 cannot charge a fee to offset staffing costs.
Wednesday, December 31: Sherman, Newdow, other patriotic atheists and patriotic secular organizations file suit against Presidential Inaugural Committee, noted anti-atheist bigot Rev. Rick Warren, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts and others, to exclude God, invocation and benediction from presidential inauguration ceremonies. A federal lawsuit was filed this week, in United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to block the improper use of religion in the presidential inauguration ceremonies. The Plaintiffs include Mike Newdow of California, who is famous for his recent Supreme Court case challenging mandatory recitation of the god-corrupted Pledge of Allegiance in public schools; Rob Sherman, who in 1988 challenged the Illinois mandatory god-corrupted Pledge law (see the last paragraph of Section 27-3 of the Illinois School Code); several other patriotic atheist citizens (see pages 1 and 2 of the Complaint) and a number of patriotic secular organizations (see pages 2 and 3 of the Complaint). The lawsuit challenges the use of the anti-atheist phrase, "So help me God," in the oaths of office for President and Vice President, and challenges the inclusion of an invocation and benediction in the official, taxpayer-funded government-sponsored inauguration ceremonies.
The planned invocation is particularly inappropriate, because the clergy selected to present it, the infamous bigot Rev. Rick Warren, stated on Larry King that "I couldn't vote for a person who [is] an atheist." (The quote is about three-quarters of the way into the show.) As an atheist, I cannot stand by and allow somebody to go unchallenged in having a prominent role in a significant government ceremony when that person goes around encouraging citizens to not vote for people like me strictly on the basis of a candidate's theological opinion. We may not be successful in stopping this infamous bigot from participating in the inauguration, but we aren't going to let him participate unchallenged. You can view all of the relief that we are asking the Court to provide by looking at page 38 of the Complaint.
Wednesday, November 5: And now, a message from the President-elect of the United States. From the Rob Sherman Show archives: Barack Obama celebrity stinger from 2004. Meanwhile, regarding my campaign for State Representative, I received a respectable 1,230 votes, with all precincts reporting, including 1,141 votes from 89 precincts in Cook County and 89 votes from 7 precincts in Lake County. The campaign demonstrated my fiscal prudence, in that I received the most votes of any candidate, per dollar spent on the campaign. I received approximately one vote for every dollar-fifty spent on the campaign. The incumbent, Republican Sid Mathias, spent about twenty dollars for every vote that he got, and the Democratic challenger, Carol Javens, spent about thirty dollars for every vote that she got. In that regard, I won the election. Sid and I leave this campaign with our heads held high for having run outstanding, issues-based, ethical campaigns. Carol, on the other hand, demonstrated that she lacks the honesty and moral character that the people of the 53rd District require of their candidates and public officials. She will never recover her reputation after her campaign that consisted solely of dirty tricks, fear-and-smear tactics, lying repeatedly about the incumbent (such as accusing him of being anti-middle class, anti-veteran and with being a tool of the gun lobby, who wants to flood the streets with AK-47s), and even stooping to trying to divide the community along religious lines by asking, in robo-calls, that voters cast their ballots for her and not for "The atheist Rob Sherman."
Thursday, October 16: Rob Sherman resolves differences with National Highway Transportation Safety Administration regarding seat belts on school buses. Today, I had a long talk with a high-ranking administrator of NHTSA regarding my concern that they should have required, in their new rule announced yesterday, lap/shoulder seat belts on all large school buses. Working together, we came up with a solution that we both found reasonable. Details on that solution will be posted here in the next day or two.
Wednesday, October 15: Rob Sherman condemns US Department of Transportation for not requiring, in a new set of rules issued today by US DOT, lap/shoulder seat belts on newly built school buses. The US DOT today issued a news release (see: http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot15208.htm ) announcing new federal rules regarding seat belts on school buses. While small school buses will be required to have lap/shoulder seat belts, large school buses will still not be required to have seat belts. US DOT justifies their failure to require lap/shoulder seat belts on large buses by stating "that seat belts on larger buses can limit capacity and force more students to walk or ride in cars to school." That claim is PATENTLY FALSE. At least two companies, IMMI and M2K, offer a new technology called "flex seats," that automatically switch from accommodating two large or three smaller students. Rob Sherman has no relationship of any kind, whatsoever, with either IMMI or M2K.
Countless news reports over the years have demonstrated, consistently: Compartmentalization fails 100% of passengers, 100% of the time, in bus crashes. Don't ever ride in a long-distance or high-speed bus that does not have seat belts.
US DOT should reverse its rule decision and require lap/shoulder seat belts on all newly built school buses.
Below is a news release on this subject, issued today by the Rob Sherman for State Rep campaign:
Friday, October 3: Concert tonight. Rob Sherman Concerts presents Brock and Abrams, tonight from 8 p.m. to midnight, at Louie's Chop House in Shorewood. For more details, see Rob Sherman Concerts.
Thursday, September 25: Three newspapers publish candidate surveys, with my answers. Visit Rob Sherman for State Rep to view their questions, and my answers, from the Chicago Tribune Candidate Survey, the Daily Herald Candidate Survey, and the Pioneer Press (Chicago Sun-Times) Candidate Survey.
Sunday, September 21: Sherman proposes new law to provide Illinois consumers with relief from unjust credit card company late fees. Proposal would require a minimum of twenty-eight days from statement closing date to pay your credit card bills. Credit card companies have come up with a new scam to screw you unjustly for undeserved fee money. What they do is push up the due date for when your payment is due, specifically so that they can play Gotcha and charge you a late fee, for nothing, when you don't get your payment in by the artificially early due date. At least one national credit card company uses a due date of just twenty days after the statement closing date. By the time they print and send you the bill, about a week goes by between the closing date and when you get your bill. You need to send in your payment about a week before the due date in order to make sure that the payment gets posted by the due date. That leaves you with about a week, maybe even less, to get the bill paid. If you are out of town for just one week or even if you're just busy doing what you do, and you don't get your payment out within a few days of that bill showing up in your mail, you get screwed with a late fee, for no good reason at all. The early due date is simply arbitrary, and done for the specific purpose of generating an unjust Gotcha fee. The late fee is assessed automatically by computer. They'll just have to set the date for the automatic charge later. I will sponsor legislation to require that no late fee be allowed for credit card bills where the payment is received within twenty-eight days of the statement closing date. Vote for Rob Sherman for State Rep, and instead of them pushing us around, how about we push them around for a change. That's not going to happen with the incumbent. You need me for this. To view my full campaign platform and learn more about my campaign, see Rob Sherman for State Representative.
Wednesday, September 17: Sherman posts answers to newspaper candidate surveys. The Pioneer Press, the Daily Herald and the Chicago Tribune have submitted candidate surveys to me in regards to my Green Party campaign for Illinois State Representative for the 53rd District. Today, I've posted their questions and my answers from both the Pioneer Press candidate survey and also the Daily Herald candidate survey. Tribune later this week. See also Rob Sherman for State Rep.
Tuesday, August 5: Ricky and Dawn photo by Celeste. Rick is 26 years old. He is part-owner of computer company Ferrum Technology Services and lives in the Northwest suburbs. Dawn is 15 years old. She's a sophomore at Buffalo Grove High School.
Monday, July 28: New pictures of the Flying Shermanator. Pilot Side view
Saturday, July 26: Sherman scores big win in court case to block Rod's plan to donate of one million state tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church. For details, see the story written by Mike obinson of the Associated Press, which was published, today, in newspapers across the country, including the Fort Mill Times (Fort Mill, South Carolina) under the title Atheist gets green light from court, and in the Chicago Tribune under the same title. The Daily Herald published Robinson's AP story in their newsprint editions under the title, "Judge: Atheist can sue to block funding." See also the story written by Adriana Colindres, which was published, today, in newspapers across Illinois, including the Peoria Star Journal under the title Lawsuit to block state grant can go forward, judge says and the State Journal-Register (Springfield, Illinois) under the title Judge allows suit challenging state grant to church. In Adriana's story, the word, "perp," is law enforcement slang for "perpetrator."
Thursday, July 24: Dawn Sherman to receive prestigious John Peter Altgeld Award this Saturday from the Chicago Tribune McCormick Freedom Museum and the Newberry Library for her vigorous and successful defense of the First Amendment in the "Moment of Silence" lawsuit. Dawn will receive the award shortly after noon this Saturday at Washington Square Park, which is located about a mile north of downtown Chicago, at 900 North between Dearborn and Clark Streets. For more details, see the Newberry Library press release: http://www.newberry.org/media/Bughouse2008.html .
Tuesday, July 22: Rob Sherman Airplanes opens for business! See the Flying Sherman-ator and find out more about my new airplane business. For details, see Rob Sherman Airplanes. Also, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn talks about Rob Sherman 2.0 in his column, today, entitled Atheist aims new weapon in his crusade. Meanwhile, the Daily Herald still refuses, five days later, to report any news about my lawsuit (large pdf file -- may be slow loading) to stop Rod's attempted million tax dollar donation to Pilgrim Baptist Church (even larger pdf file -- may also be slow loading). The first court date on that case will be this Friday, July 25th, in Springfield.
Sunday, July 20: Sun-Times, Tribune publish major stories on Sherman lawsuit against Pilgrim Baptist grant. Chicago's two major daily newspapers have published stories regarding my lawsuit (large 17-page pdf file -- may be slow loading) to block the State of Illinois million dollar grant (large 33-page pdf file -- also may be slow loading) to Pilgrim Baptist Church. In today's Chicago Sun-Times, in both the print edition and online, Dave McKinney's story is entitled, Grant to church spurs suit. PILGRIM BAPTIST | Atheist activist says state can't give $1 mil to repair fire damage. Dave got it exactly right when he quoted me as saying:
"We all know Rod did this two months before his primary election victory over Edwin Eisendrath. January 2006, when the fire happens, and he's in the March primary against Eisendrath, Rod was pandering for black votes. I understand that. But you can't have the state donating $1 million to a church. You can't do that with tax dollars."
In the Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn's blog Change of Subject, in Friday's online edition but not in any of their newsprint editions, has a story entitled, Lawsuit seeks to block Blago from giving money to Pilgrim Baptist Church, with reader comments below Zorn's story. Meanwhile, the Daily Herald has refused to touch the story so far. Also, Chicago Public Radio WBEZ provided generous broadcast coverage on Friday, as well as a story on their website entitled, Atheist Activist Seeks to Sue Governor, with reader comments below. WBBM NewsRadio 78 and WGN Radio also provided generous broadcast coverage of the story.
For details about my lawsuit, see my July 18th "Latest Update," below.
As you consider the merits of my contentions, please keep in mind these two things, which are the key points that I will be making to the Judge in court:
First, Article Ten, Section Three of the Illinois Constitution states, in pertinent part, that "No grant or donation of money shall ever be made by the State to any church, or for any sectarian purpose." The key word, here, is the final "or." That clause in the State Constitution means two very specific and distinct things. The State of Illinois is prohibited from donating or granting money to any church for ANY purpose, regardless of whether that money is for secular (non-religious) or sectarian (religious) purposes. In addition (this is where that key word, the final "or" of the clause, comes in), the State is prohibited from donating or granting money to any other party for any sectarian purpose. The State is arguing that their money is being granted to the church for secular purposes, but it doesn't matter that the purpose is secular. The constitution clearly and unambiguously prohibits the State from granting money to Pilgrim Baptist for any purpose at all, even if that purpose is purportedly secular. Organizations that are NOT churches can receive grants or donations of state funds, so long as the money will not be used for sectarian purposes, but churches are prohibited from receiving ANY grant or donation of state money for ANY purpose. It's an important distinction which the State either doesn't recognize or is choosing to ignore. That's why I'm asking a judge to review the matter.
Second, a church certainly qualifies to act as the agent for the State in providing state-designated secular services. That means that if the State wants to conduct a feeding program in Bronzeville, or provide clothing to the needy or some other secular program, such as drug rehab or anything else, in Bronzeville, Pilgrim Baptist certainly qualifies as an organization which can act as the agent for the state, by providing these state-designated services in a non-discriminating manner without proselytizing and being reimbursed for the expenses that it incurs in providing the state-designated program. "State-designated" means that either the General Assembly, the Governor or some state agency has specified what program to offer, how the program shall be conducted and how much money shall be spent on that particular program. The State certainly could enter into a service-provider agreement with Pilgrim Baptist for Pilgrim Baptist to operate the program, with the State reimbursing Pilgrim Baptist for the program costs. That benefits the State (us taxpayers) because the State saves money by not having to set up the infrastructure to operate the program by obtaining space and hiring employees just for the purpose or providing this program, and you can't discriminate against a service provider simply because the service provider has a religious basis, if the service provider is willing to conduct a State-specified program in a secular and non-proselytizing manner. That's a lot different than what's happening with this Grant Agreement. In this "block grant" agreement, Pilgrim Baptist gets to decide, unilaterally, what secular program or programs it will offer to the community, how much it will spend on each program and what the program parameters will be. However, Pilgrim Baptist is not the Illinois General Assembly. We elected a State Senate, State Representatives and a Governor to make those decisions for us. The Pilgrim Baptist Church Board of Trustees has no right to make those program and financial decisions for us, unilaterally. Who elected them to make those decisions? Not only that. When the State asserts that the building that is restored with State money can only be used for secular purposes, that only applies until February 28, 2010. See the first sentence if Item 2.5 on page 13 of the Grant Agreement, which says, "The Grantee shall continue to provide the programs and services specified in the Grant Agreement for the term of the Grant Agreement" and also the third paragraph of the first page of the Grant Agreement, which says that the Grant Agreement shall exist "from the beginning date of 03/01/2008 through the ending date of 02/28/2010." After that date, Pilgrim Baptist could use the building, paid for with your tax dollars, for any purpose it wanted, including sectarian purposes.
Friday, July 18: Sherman files suit to block million dollar State of Illinois grant to Pilgrim Baptist Church.
Thursday, May 29: Judge bans "Moment of Silence" law statewide. The federal judge handling the unconstitutional Illinois public school "Moment of Silence" law case today expanded his preliminary injunction statewide. Now, every public school in Illinois is barred from doing the moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. Previously, the injunction applied only to Buffalo Grove High School and the other schools in High School District 214. I'm so proud of my daughter, Dawn. She took on the entire Illinois General Assembly and won. Last September, Dawn got God banned from homecoming at Buffalo Grove High School. Now, she's gotten God banned from every public school in the State of Illinois.
Move up to six pallets and up to 7,000 pounds to and from any
of the forty-eight contiguous states.
Rates are based on the cost of diesel fuel, the amount of time your project
takes and
origin and destination points. Call for a quote on your particular needs.
No hazardous materials nor household goods.
Call (847) 870-0700 for a quote on your next freight move. You call, I haul!
Apple Vacations
Vacation packages to the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, Europe and
Ski Country.
Call (847) 870-0700 to plan your next Apple Vacation.
Rob Sherman Travel Agency has never charged a customer service fee and
never will.
Click here for the latest news from Rob Sherman Advocacy.
