Posted on 10/28/2005 7:08:15 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
HARRISBURG — It was surely one of the most anticipated moments in the history of federal jurisprudence, the appearance, finally, of former Dover Area School Board member Bill Buckingham at the Dover Panda Trial. And it did not disappoint. It was, in the truest sense of the word, unbelievable.
Really.
Unbelievable.
At the onset of his stay on the witness stand, Buckingham raised his right hand and swore, or affirmed, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then, for the record, he stated his name.
"William Buckingham."
By the time he left the stand, six hours later, I almost expected the judge to ask him for a photo ID to make sure he was indeed William Buckingham.
A telling moment came when he was asked about how the Dover Area High School had acquired 60 copies of the book "Of Pandas and People," a brilliantly dumb book that promotes the idea of intelligent design.
In a deposition given in January, he said he didn't know how the district got the books. He said he didn't know who donated the books. He said he didn't ask because he didn't want to know. He said he didn't know who donated the money to buy the books.
So, during his testimony Thursday, Steve Harvey, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, asked Buckingham about the books and how the money was raised to buy them. He specifically asked Buckingham whether he raised the money at his church.
He said he hadn't.
Then, he said he had.
Then, he said he hadn't.
He said he stood before the congregation one Sunday morning and said "there was a need" for money to buy "Of Pandas and People" and if anyone wanted to give, they could.
"But I didn't ask anyone for money," he said.
Harvey asked him whether he took up a collection at his church, Harmony Grove Community Church.
"Not as such," Buckingham said.
So the lawyer asked him whether he got in front of the congregation and asked for donations.
"I didn't," Buckingham said.
He paused.
"I'm sorry, I did say that, but there was more to it," he said.
Anyway, he collected the money — wherever it came from — and then he wrote a check for $850 to Donald Bonsell, father of then-school board President Alan Bonsell.
But previously, when asked by the lawyer about who donated the books, he said he didn't know.
"Mr. Buckingham, you lied to me at your deposition ... isn't that true?" Harvey asked.
"How so?" Buckingham responded.
It went on for a while before Judge John E. Jones III told Harvey to move on.
"You made your point very effectively," the judge said.
Earlier, Harvey had made an even more effective point.
Buckingham said he never read about his adventures on the school board in the newspapers and never talked to anyone about them. He also said he never mentioned creationism at school board meetings or in the press or anywhere, for that matter.
So at the time the board was talking about creationism, Buckingham granted an interview to a Fox 43 news reporter. I guess he forgot about that new-fangled invention, videotape.
On the tape, which you can see at http://www.ydr.com/mmedia/multi/528, Buckingham, wearing the same lapel pin he wore in court Thursday, said he wanted to balance evolution in the classroom with something else, "such as creationism."
Oops.
He said that the reporter "ambushed" him and that he was "like a deer in the headlights of a car" and that the newspapers were all reporting that he and the board were talking about creationism and that he thought to himself, "Don't say creationism."
Double oops.
It was like he had a Homer Simpson moment. He was thinking "Don't say creationism. Don't say creationism. Don't say creationism." And then he opens his yap and says "creationism."
D'oh!
And to compound the prevarication, he said he was thinking about something the newspapers reported — something he didn't read or talk to anybody about.
It went on like that all day. He'd say he voted for buying a new biology book. Then, he said he voted against it. He said he thought intelligent design was a scientific theory. But he said he didn't know what intelligent design was. He said he wasn't the force behind the board adopting intelligent design and then, confronted with what he said, under oath, previously, he'd say maybe he was.
He said a lot of things, and then he'd say a lot of things that weren't exactly what he had said to begin with.
And then, he attributed his spotty, selective and just plain weird memory to his OxyContin addiction.
Unbelievable.
After the June 7 and June 14, 2004 board meetings, the York Daily Record and York Dispatch reported that Buckingham said that he wanted "creationism" taught as an alternative to the theory of evolution. The papers reported that he was worried because the textbook proposed by science faculty was "laced with Darwinism" and that he wanted a book with a balance "between creationism and evolution." His concern: "If you teach evolution over and over again, the students will believe it is fact." He was said to have challenged a member of the public "to trace your roots to the monkey you came from."
Buckingham was also quoted as claiming that "separation of church and state is mythic" and that it wasn't necessary to teach Hindu, Muslim or other religious beliefs alongside creationism because "This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution. It was founded on Christianity."
Then, there was the famous quote: "2000 years ago someone died on a cross for us; shouldn't we have the courage to stand up for him?"
Buckingham said that he never read any of the articles published about the Board meetings (although both papers were delivered to his house every day) and that for the most part he wasn't told what was being reported. He testified that he hadn't reviewed the news articles to prepare for trial because he didn't "give a darn thing about what they print."
When asked to read the news articles, Buckingham testified that the reporters for the Daily Record and the Dispatch got most things right, but that they "made up" his use of the word "creationism." He also said that some statements - including "2000 years ago..." and "...founded on Christianity" -- were things he had said in late 2003, after a Board debate over requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance that focused on the words "under God" in the pledge.
[Gratuitous side comment: The courts have held unequivocally that the First Amendment forbids a school from requiring a student to recite the pledge.]
Buckingham said he believed that the reporters simply substituted the word "creationism" every time a Board member said "intelligent design." He stated emphatically that neither he nor any other School Board member ever used the word "creationism" during any School Board meeting, Curriculum Committee meeting, private discussion or to the press.
Then Steve Harvey of Pepper Hamilton LLP played for Buckingham a segment aired by Fox News in the summer of 2004. All around the courtroom, Buckingham's face appeared on monitors and screens, saying, "It's OK to teach Darwinism, but you have to balance it with something else, such as creationism."
Buckingham said he'd forgotten about that interview. He characterized the interview by the Fox News reporters as an "ambush" and said he'd felt like a "deer in the headlights." He then explained that he had been so concerned about all the news reports that used the word "creationism" - the same reports he'd said that he never read, wasn't told about and didn't "give a darn thing about" - that he was concentrating really hard on not using that word and it just slipped out. "I made a mistake," he said.
At his first deposition, Buckingham had testified that he "absolutely" voted to purchase Biology in time for the beginning of classes in the Fall of 2004. Yesterday, Buckingham conceded that he had voted against buying the biology textbook to try to force the Board to purchase Pandas as a companion text. He agreed with the news report that he had said, "If he didn't get his book, then the District would not get its book."
Buckingham testified that he learned about Pandas from Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center, when seeking a textbook that offered an alternative to evolution. In proposing the curriculum change, Buckingham sought only legal advice, never any educational or scientific advice. Nor did he consult the Curriculum Advisory Committee, which is made up of Dover Area residents, because he was new to the Board and didn't realize that was Board policy.
Finally, Mr. Harvey asked Buckingham about the School Distric's acquisition of dozens of copies of Pandas. Buckingham testified that members of his church had donated money for the purchase of the books, and that he written a check to Donald Bonsell, father of the President of the School Board Alan Bonsell [who will be testifying next week]. He stated that he didn't share that information when a member of the public asked how the district got Pandas because he "didn't think it was relevant."
Mr. Harvey then asked Buckingham to read from his deposition. Mr. Harvey had asked where the books came from and Buckingham had responded that he did not know who had donated the books, but that he had "deduced" there might be a tie to Alan Bonsell just because Bonsell was Board President. In the same deposition Buckingham said he did not ask where the books came from "because I didn't want to know."
"Didn't you lie to me?" asked Mr. Harvey. Buckingham responded that his deposition answer was truthful because he didn't know the names of the church members who had made cash donations for the purchase of the books.
Then, came the reporter...
Immediately after Buckingham's testimony, Heidi Bernhard-Bubb, the author of the York Dispatch articles that Buckingham claimed were inaccurate, testified. ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak walked Ms. Bernhard-Bubb through each of the eight articles and she confirmed that her quotes were correct. In particular, she confirmed that she heard Buckingham and other Board members say they wanted to add "creationism" to the biology curriculum at June 7, 2004 Board meeting and heard Buckingham use that word again at the June 14 Board meeting. She testified that the phrase "intelligent design" was not mentioned until the August 2, 2004 Board meeting - which is why it did not appear in any of her articles until August. She also confirmed that she heard Buckingham make the other statements she attributed to him.
Ms. Bernhard-Bubb will be cross examined tomorrow.
submitted by Mary Catherine Roper, Staff Attorney, ACLU of PA
Gratuitous side comment to gratuitous side comment:
I was in grammar school in the early fifties, in the South, in a city where nearly half the churches are Southern Baptist. There were kids in my classes who left the room during the Pledge. They stayed for the Lord's Prayer, which we also recited in class.
Wilson 1:1970, "the devil made me do it."
Basically what I've been saying for quite some time now.
Out of curiosity, what's the good of a compulsory pledge? If the person being forced to pledge allegiance to the flag doesn't feel allegiance to that flag, or that giving an oath to anyone but God is a sin, what good has it done? Methinks a lot of folks have fallen for the old "appearance of patriotism == patriotism" and others go along with it because they don't want to stand out or draw adverse attention to themselves.
Hmmmm, sounds suspiciously like the "Alger Hiss" Defense.
;-)
Wow! A simple statement like that makes me think you do not know many Real Christians®!
I don't really like the word "fundies" all that much. It's a categorical thing that isn't necessarily all-inclusive.
I think creationists is better, and YECCERs works for the Young-earth types. Not all fundamentalists fit those categories.
That said, there sure are a lot of lies going around out there on some creationism web sites.
You're probably right. However, I was attempting to compare them to some fundamentalist Moslems, and was trying to keep in an apple-to-apple thing.
"You're probably right. However, I was attempting to compare them to some fundamentalist Moslems, and was trying to keep in an apple-to-apple thing."
I'll concede the point.
Bill Buckingham is the school board member who recommended the "Icons of Evolution" video. This video is based on the book written by Jonathan Wells, a member of the Unification Church, aka Moonies.
Wow. An entire thread which up to this point has not had one CS/ID promoter post to it. In my short experience, I've never seen this before.
They know when they're whipped!!!
That's all I can remember...
Actually, that's exactly as it should be.
The courts are involved in this case precisely because it is unconstitutional to inject religion into public schools. And that's ultimately what this case is about.
It's *not* unconstitutional to teach kids total nonsense, propaganda, or lies, and no matter how bad an idea that might be, the courts would have no jurisdiction over the matter. If the court decided for the plaintiffs "because of intelligent design per se", they'd be overreaching their authority.
It's *not* unconstitutional to teach kids total nonsense, propaganda, or lies, and no matter how bad an idea that might be, the courts would have no jurisdiction over the matter.
How true. Kids are already being taught a lot of 'nonsense, propaganda, or lies' in public indoctrination centers/camps/schools.
...then they can feel persecuted and righteous when the "obvious" verdict doesn't occur. They'll write it off to the machinations of the vast left-wing conspiracy.
They don't do reality too well.
I've noticed.
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