Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
A controversy about government endorsement of an advertisement containing the phrase, "God Bless America," has come to a swift resolution after a complaint was raised by Rob Sherman Advocacy about government linking god-belief with patriotism.
Last month, Pace, the government agency that runs transit busses throughout the six-county suburban region of northeast Illinois, posted on its web site a page entitled "Pace shows patriotism with America-themed bus!", which endorsed the contents of a private advertisement that completely wraps one of its busses. The advertisement, placed by Viacom, commingles a religious message with patriotic themes.
In addition, Pace issued a press release, entitled Pace shows patriotism with America-themed bus in northwest suburbs, announcing the government's endorsement of the messages contained in the advertisement. Pace then posted a copy of that news release on its web site.
On Monday morning, January 28th, I contacted the office of Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross to object to the government endorsement of a religious message. The next afternoon, Mr. Ross returned my call while I was riding one of his Route 234 Des Plaines-to-Wheeling busses. I had put my office telephone on call-forwarding to my cell phone, so I was able to take his call right there on the bus. T. J. loved it. He recognized the sound of the bus' engine immediately. It's not every day that an executive of a transit agency returns a call from one of his customers and reaches that customer while the customer is right there on one of his busses. That had to have made him feel good about me, since I was demonstrating unambiguously that I am supportive of the service that his agency provides. I explained to him that I was on my way to my office in Buffalo Grove from a meeting in downtown Chicago with Tom Gauza, the Chief of Staff of Senator Peter Fitzgerald's office, where we had discussed many of the proposals that Rob Sherman Advocacy was supporting. More on that in a future Liberal News & Commentary report.
I told Mr. Ross on the phone that it was inappropriate for the government to endorse a religious message, and that Pace was doing so with its Patriotism Bus page on its web site, its press release and the lack of a disclaimer on the outside of the God bus that clearly identifies the sponsor of the advertising message. Mr. Ross responded that Pace had intended to endorse only the patriotic themes in the advertisement. I replied that the religious message was fully intertwined into the patriotic part of the ad, so it was impossible for the government to separate out its endorsement of the patriotic part without implying an endorsement of the religious part. Mr. Ross said that he would look into the matter and that someone would get back to me the following week.
Yesterday, Pace Communications Director Mindy Laflamme called me in behalf on Mr. Ross. (This time, I was actually in the office when the phone rang.) Miss Ross said that Pace agreed with me that it was improper for the government to endorse a religious message, and that Pace agreed with me that the contents of the Patriotism Bus page on their web site, the contents of their news release and the lack of a disclaimer on the outside of the bus all constituted an implied endorsement of a religious message by government.
To remedy the situation, Miss Ross promised that the Patriotism Bus page and the news release would both be removed from the Pace web site by the end of the day. By 5:00 PM yesterday, that was done. In addition, Pace would look into the feasibility of preparing a disclaimer for the outside of the bus that clarified who the sponsor of the advertisement is. She said, however, that the advertisement was scheduled to come off the bus at the end of next month, so she wasn't sure whether it would be practical to produce a disclaimer and attached it for such a short period of time, but she would let me know by the end of this week what they would do about my request for a disclaimer on the outside of the bus.
I said that that was fine, and that I appreciated their prompt and courteous reply and their cooperation in reviewing this matter.
Pace has now essentially done all that I have asked. Besides giving great service on busses that are clean, well-maintained and run on-time by drivers who are pleasant, professional and have an outstanding safety record, Pace acknowledged that government should not be endorsing a religious message and has taken reasonable steps to stop sending such a message.
Meanwhile, I also spoke yesterday by telephone with Chicago Tribune ace columnist Eric Zorn. He told me that he didn't mean for the remark in yesterday's column that I complained about to be taken as a cheap shot. He promised me that he won't include in future columns about me remarks which I regard as cheap shots which are unrelated to the subject he is reporting on, so Eric and I have kissed and made up. It was Eric's story about the Zion city seal and me that essentially launched my public career as a nationally revered civil rights activist. The story, entitled Atheist Sees All Zion's Signs and Can't Believe It, appeared above the fold on the front page of the April 3, 1986, Chicago Tribune. Eric has since written dozens of stories about me, all of which have been supportive of the things that I have been advocating over the years. Thanks, Eric, for giving my issues a prominent forum.
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