Daniel Washburn for Superior Court Judge in Pinal County, Arizona, Division 1!

Dear Readers,

You know how on the voting ballot, there's always those judges at the end of the list that nobody really talks about or knows about? I've left those blank when voting, and I was thinking about leaving them blank this election.

But then Daniel Washburn, a candidate for Superior Court Judge in Pinal County, Division 1, sent me an email that said something like, "Hey, Telemoonfa, you should help me with my campagin. I'm friends with Jeff Smith!"

That e-mail, to me, was the bat signal. I donned my bat-suit and sprung into action! (Actually I just e-mailed him back and said "Sure, I'll help, because a friend of Jeff Smith is a friend of mine." But that's the more boring version.)

Short story shorter, I am now proudly wearing his T-Shirt and displaying his sign in my front yard.

First I liked Daniel Washburn because he seemed conservative and Mormony. But then I looked at his website and his competitor's (Delana Fuller) website, and Daniel Washburn's website totally blew the other one out of the water!

Daniel is the only candidate with experience as a judge. He has a very impressive resume.

But my new favorite thing about Daniel Washburn is that he wrote this wonderful article about student-initiated religious speech in public schools. I read the whole thing, and it was great.

He talks about the sort-of conflict between the Establishment Clause and the Free Speech Clause in the First Ammendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Establishment Clause states that Government can't establish a state church. But the Free Speech Clause guaruntees that religous views can be expressed. So what happens when a bunch of Christian students want to pray in public school? One could argue that letting the students pray, say around the flag pole at lunch time, is using state land, money, and facilities to promote Christianity, and therefore it violates the Establishment clause. On the other hand, you could argue that forbidding the Christian students from praying around the flag pole at lunchtime is a violation of the Free Speech Clause.

Daniel writes that court precedent has made clear that teacher or adminstrative-initiated religous speech, such as a teacher-led prayer, violates the Constitution. But the Supreme Court has not reviewed the issue of student-initiated religous speech. Practically speaking, we're talking about student led prayers at football games and graduation ceremonies, etc.

Daniel Washburn reviews a lot of court cases dealing with the issue of student-initiated religous speech in public schools, and then he eloquently writes in the conclusion, "Student-initiated religious speech is private speech and, as such, does not violate the Establishment Clause. Conversely, this type of speech is protected by the Free Speech Clause. Hence, schools should allow religious and secular speech that does not disrupt the school's administration of education. Religion has long been a part of American history. Students cannot be expected to divorce themselves of their religious beliefs when attending a public school. The Court, in Chandler, is not giving religious speech special treatment rather it is asserting that student-initiated religious and secular speech must be treated equally."

Dang, that conclusion is dynamite! Doesn't Washburn write well and think clearly?

I'm reminded of an incident that happened on a school bus in Mesa not too long ago. It was in the news. There's a few different versions of the story.

Version 1: Some LDS students were riding home on the school bus when they all decided to sing some LDS Church hymns. The bus driver said, "Hey, quit singing church music. You're violating the Seperation of Church and State, and that's in the Constitution!"

Version 2: The students on the bus were being rowdy and vulgar, (which is typical) and the bus driver said, "Hey, aren't a lot of you kids Mormon? You ought to sing some Mormon songs." The Mormon kids started singing Joseph Smith's First Prayer or something.

Version 3: Some LDS students on the bus started singing LDS songs, and the bus driver didn't say anything. He didn't tell them to keep singing, or stop singing. Half of the kids on the bus were filled with the Spirit, and beheld heavenly visions. And half of the kids on the bus were offended.

In version 1, one could argue that the bus driver violated the student's free speech.

In version 2, one could argue that the bus driver violated the Establishment Clause, because he's a government bus driver, on the job, and he promoted Mormonism.

In version 3, one could argue that the bus driver violated the Establishment Clause because he let the Mormon kids take over and spread their religion throughout the public school bus. And if he smiled when he heard the singing, well, that smile would practically be an endorsement of Mormonism, and an endorsement of Mormonism could be interpreted as hate speech. The bus driver, just by smiling, could have made all the gay kids on the bus suicidal! And that's gotta be a really really serious crime!

Sorry, I get absurd sometimes. But then again, practicing law is absurd sometimes.

I'm not sure which version of the incident is real. Public school busses have video cameras now, so I'm sure some government worker reviewed the tape to determine what really happened on the bus.

Whatever version of the story really happened, the bus driver got suspended for a few days and reassigned to a different bus route for misbehaving. Or maybe I'm confusing that with another story. I don't know.

I tried googling this story but I couldn't find it. I promise I read it in the news a few months or years back.

Have I ever told you that sometimes I think it would be cool to be a lawyer? If law school wasn't so long and hard and expensive, I might go. Basically my career story is...

I was going to be a teacher.

I went to college for six years to become a teacher.

I became a teacher.

I hated being a teacher.

I stopped being a teacher.

I have a wife and a kid and a house, so I got a job making movie screens at a factory in Mesa. I like the job pretty well, and maybe I'll do it for the rest of my life. It's secure, and the people there are just great people.

Gosh, how did a post about Daniel Washburn turn into a post about me?

Hey, that reminds me of a joke. What does the self-centered opera singer do to warm up? He goes, "Me me me me me!"

(You have to sing the me me me me me to make that joke funny. And now that I explained it, the joke is less funny.)

Vote for Daniel Washburn on November 2nd!

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa