Proof of an ancient, developing universe, provided by God.
Posted on 09/30/2005 8:31:26 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
HARRISBURG — When he painted a mural depicting the ascent of man, Zach Strausbaugh had no idea that evolution was a controversial topic.
"At the time, I really didn't give it a second thought," he said. "I believe in fact, and there are so many facts that support evolution."
For his graduation requirement at Dover Area High School, the then-senior spent almost a semester working on the detailed 4-foot-by-16-foot painting of man evolving from his apelike ancestors. In 1998, he donated the work to his science department.
But Strausbaugh was more of an art student than a science major. So when the now 25-year-old design engineer learned that Larry Reeser, the high school janitor at the time, burned his artwork two years ago because it offended him, well, he was a little disappointed.
"I think it's kind of ignorant," said Strausbaugh, who lives in Dover. "Even if he didn't believe in it, it wasn't nice to destroy someone else's work."
But in testimony Thursday in the fourth day of the Dover school district's federal trial over intelligent design, board members Bill Buckingham and Alan Bonsell were said to have defended the burning of Strausbaugh's painting. The testimony came in U.S. Middle District Court as the plaintiffs' attorneys were trying to show that board members had religious motivation when they approved intelligent design as a "balance" to the theory of evolution in the biology curriculum.
Former school board member Carol "Casey" Brown said Reeser destroyed the work because he thought it was full of lies, it offended his faith and he didn't want his granddaughter exposed to the graphic nature of the painting, something he considered to be "an obscenity."
Brown said Buckingham later told her that what Reeser did was right and the district should not be accepting such donations of artwork.
Brown's husband, Jeff, also a former board member, recalled that in 2003, Bonsell also said he was offended by the mural.
"I remember him snorting through his nostrils," Jeff Brown testified Thursday. "And saying something about kids shouldn't be exposed to this sort of thing."
Reeser said Thursday night he agreed with Casey Brown's characterization of why he burned the mural.
"Did you see the monkey's genitals hanging out?" Reeser asked. "How would you like your granddaughter to sit next to that?"
Casey Brown said she had been told Reeser had been reprimanded "and subsequently retired," but the 67-year-old said he had not been punished in any way.
The Browns were the day's primary witnesses. The husband and wife served on the school board together but quit in protest after a majority of the board voted in October to change the biology curriculum to include intelligent design.
After Casey Brown submitted her resignation, she testified that both Bonsell and Buckingham questioned her belief in God. She said Buckingham called her an atheist that night and accused her and her husband of destroying the school board.
Months later, board member Alan Bonsell also questioned her faith, Casey Brown testified. "He told me I would be going to hell," Brown said.
Bonsell denied making that remark. "That's an outright lie," he said. "I never said anything like that — anything like that."
While the Browns both testified that board members consistently ignored established district policies to push through the revised biology curriculum, they also admitted that at times they played a role in the changes.
Jeff Brown said he was the first one to actually use the phrase "intelligent design" at a June meeting in an effort to steer the debate from creationism.
However, in January depositions, Bill Buckingham said he first heard it mentioned by Bonsell in 2003.
Brown also testified he was the one who proposed a motion at an Oct. 18 meeting to add "Note: Origins of Life will not be taught" to the biology curriculum change that includes intelligent design. But upon cross-examination, one of Dover's attorneys, Patrick Gillen, showed that it was actually Bonsell who proposed the addendum.
Additionally, when curriculum committee members issued a proposal to change the biology curriculum to point to "problems" of evolutionary theory, Casey Brown suggested changing the word "problems" to "gaps."
Biologist Ken Miller testified this week that the use of the word "gaps" is misleading to students.
Dover's lead attorney, Richard Thompson, said the Browns' participation shows that the board did follow a democratic process. He said the fact that Bonsell, who the defense has been presenting as the chief architect of the curriculum revision, was willing to propose the motion showed a willingness to compromise with teachers and other board members.
Plaintiffs will continue making their case today in a trial that is expected to continue for another five weeks.
Despite the daily headlines and television coverage, Strausbaugh has not been following the case closely. And even though he doesn't think intelligent design belongs in science class, he thinks the issue has been blown out of proportion.
"I can't believe our little town of Dover's making national news for something like this," he said.
Not reading, grammar, math, spelling, history, geography, Spanish, or even computer programming. Naw, none of those would help them get good jobs.
Yeah, and teaching them a fable about an ark and a 5000 year old world will get them far too.
Just a tip: The Flintstones was NOT a documentary.
Proof of an ancient, developing universe, provided by God.
TRIAL WITNESS: Meetings were like revivals
CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN The York Dispatch
HARRISBURG -- The meeting reminded Carol "Casey" Brown of the traveling tent revivals that used to set up at the York Fairgrounds.
But it was a meeting of the Dover Area school board in June 2004, the former school board member said in court yesterday.
And behind the microphone, instead of a traveling preacher, was Charlotte Buckingham, school board member William Buckingham's wife.
Charlotte Buckingham quoted scripture from the Old Testament and said the district students would be cheated if they couldn't learn about biblical creation.
She told people how to accept Jesus Christ as their "personal savior," Brown said.
Alan Bonsell, board president at the time, allowed Buckingham to continue for about 15 minutes, three times the length of public comment permitted at the board's meetings, Brown testified.
As she sat there listening, she heard muttered amens coming from her fellow board members sitting at the table around her. She wasn't sure who, exactly. She heard the whispered affirmations rising up from both sides of her, she testified.
These were people she had once considered her friends.
Sensed own departure: But the spring school board meetings were the beginning of what Brown sensed was her inevitable departure from the board on which she had served for a decade, she said.
She said she felt things were getting out of control. She and her husband were afraid someone was going to get into trouble, she testified.
In mid-October 2004, she and her husband, Jeff Brown, resigned from the board.
The couple testified yesterday on behalf of 11 parents who filed suit against the district and its school board, claiming the school board members were religiously motivated when they voted to include a statement about intelligent design in high school biology classes.
Parent Frederick Callahan, a plaintiff in the suit, also testified as attorneys from the ACLU and Pepper Hamilton LLC continued to make the parents' case in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg.
Jeff and Casey Brown testified that board member Alan Bonsell and the district's supervisor of buildings and grounds were offended by a senior art project that had been hung on the walls of the high school's science wing.
The large mural, a series of plywood sheets painted to depict an ape ascending into a man, had to be removed when the high school was undergoing renovations.
Jeff Brown testified that upon seeing the work that a student donated to the school, Bonsell began "snorting through his nostrils" and said students should not be exposed to the work because "this is not where we came from."
Casey Brown said the supervisor of buildings and grounds later burned the work because he didn't want his granddaughter, who was going to be entering the high school, to see it. Casey Brown's testimony started from memories of a 2002 board retreat when Bonsell, who had been on the board for three months, said he was "concerned with the state of morality" and that prayer and faith should be reintroduced to schools.
She testified that Bonsell told board members he wanted "fair and balanced" treatment of creationism alongside the theory of evolution.
Adoption postponed: That school year, the school district had to put off buying biology textbooks because of a tight budget. The books were already so outdated that they weren't compatible with the curriculum, Casey Brown said.
But when the school board set out to buy the books for the next school year, William Buckingham spurred a movement against the textbooks because they were "laced with Darwinism," Casey Brown testified.
Board members made several "inappropriate" comments at June 2004 meetings, ranging from comments about taking a "stand" for someone who died on a cross to arguing that the separation of church and state is a myth, Casey and Jeff Brown testified.
Jeff Brown testified that when he expressed doubt about the board's apparent religious agenda, William Buckingham accused him of cowardice and said that if Jeff Brown had fought in the American Revolution, "we would still have a queen."
By the last week of July 2004, the board was divided, and William Buckingham had begun rallying for the intelligent design book "Of Pandas and People."
At the next board meeting, William Buckingham told his opposing board members that he and his political allies would vote for the biology textbook if they could also buy the "Pandas" book, Casey Brown said.
But William Buckingham's opponents found enough votes to buy only the biology textbook.
Push for 'Pandas': A frustrated William Buckingham started to collect donations to buy the "Pandas" books, Jeff Brown said.
Forgoing much of the board's typical protocol for policy adoption, William Buckingham and his supporters rushed the book's approval for an Oct. 18 meeting, Jeff Brown testified.
"I felt that we were being way too hasty," he said.
After a contentious discussion leading up to the vote that night, Jeff and Casey Brown, along with board member Noel Wenrich, voted against adopting the policy to read a statement about intelligent design and refer to the "Pandas" books. The policy passed 6-3.
Disappointed with the board's decision and fearful of an impending First Amendment lawsuit, Jeff and Casey Brown announced their resignations immediately after the vote.
Casey Brown said that Bonsell called her an atheist and that William Buckingham told her she was "going to hell."
In her resignation letter, Casey Brown said two of her fellow board members -- William Buckingham and former board member Jane Cleaver -- had asked her if she was "born again."
On cross-examination, school board attorney Patrick Gillen set out to debunk the relevancy of the questions because they weren't asked at board functions and the board members were her friends.
Casey Brown testified that the questions were posed during a visit to Cleaver's house and a ride home from a school board meeting in William Buckingham's car.
Just speechless.....in this case, I see little difference between the Nazis' book burning and this incident here. Ignore science and art....just burn it if you don't like it.
Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.And behind the microphone, instead of a traveling preacher, was Charlotte Buckingham, school board member William Buckingham's wife.
Charlotte Buckingham quoted scripture from the Old Testament and said the district students would be cheated if they couldn't learn about biblical creation.
She told people how to accept Jesus Christ as their "personal savior," Brown said.
Alan Bonsell, board president at the time, allowed Buckingham to continue for about 15 minutes, three times the length of public comment permitted at the board's meetings, Brown testified.
As she sat there listening, she heard muttered amens coming from her fellow board members sitting at the table around her. She wasn't sure who, exactly. She heard the whispered affirmations rising up from both sides of her, she testified.
These were people she had once considered her friends.
Sensed own departure: But the spring school board meetings were the beginning of what Brown sensed was her inevitable departure from the board on which she had served for a decade, she said.
She said she felt things were getting out of control. She and her husband were afraid someone was going to get into trouble, she testified.
Actual photo taken at Dover school board meeting
What we do know, however is:So, the electron cloud theory of chemistry will eventually be discarded as wrong? Should we then teach the angels-moving-the-electrons-around theory of chemistry alongside the mainstream theory?
"Historically speaking, almost every theory in science eventually becomes discarded as wrong."
The same will eventually happen to the theory of evolution.
Will Heliocentrism eventually be "discarded as wrong" too? Should we give geocentrism equal time in high school?
(Wow, that geocentrism guy is in rare form this month!)
Any port in a storm.
"Reeser destroyed the work because he thought it was full of lies, it offended his faith and he didn't want his granddaughter exposed to the graphic nature of the painting, something he considered to be "an obscenity."
Didn't the Taliban say something similar about the ancient statues they blew up in Afghanistan?
That was exactly my thought as well. This is outrageous.
This is the kind of thing that a janitor should have been fired for. He destroyed school property because it offended his delicate religious sensitivities, and he doesn't get punished in any way?
Worse yet, we run the risk of all conservatives being lumped in with this thug. The only good news I see here is that the Dover School Board's lie is now fully exposed for what it is.
This actually ranks up there with "My ignorance is my strength."
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