How You
Can Stop Academic Persecution
See Expelled
& Contact Your State Representatives & Senators
By Jim Day
On April 2nd Ben Stein came to the Missouri
State Capitol and made a presentation of his documentary movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. We were the second State in the Union to be
honored with this incredible presentation. Ben’s first presentation was before
the Florida legislature on March 12th and, according to Ben and the producers,
our turn out of law makers far exceeded Florida’s.
For those reading this article who have not seen or heard about the movie Expelled, here’s a brief synopsis. In the film Ben travels the world confronting
some of the world's top evolutionary/atheistic scientists, educators and
philosophers regarding the persecution of educators and scientists who have been
ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired for merely believing that there might
be evidence of ‘design’ in nature and that perhaps life is not just the result
of accidental, random chance. He also
interviews those who have suffered from such persecution. It’s truly an eye
opening documentary that’s also very entertaining and at times quite humorous.
However, the bottom line to Expelled is not the battle between Evolution
vs. Intelligent Design – it’s much bigger than that. The REAL bottom line –
which is made quite clear in the movie and was repeatedly stressed during Ben’s
presentation to our State legislators – is the fact that students, teachers and
scientists all across our nation are being denied their freedom of speech,
freedom of expression and freedom of inquiry! They are being censored, punished
and denied the very freedoms upon which our nation was founded!
This persecution and violation of their (and
our children’s) freedom of speech and inquiry MUST BE STOPPED!
HOW YOU CAN HELP
1. Contact your State Rep. and
Senator and strongly urge them to see Expelled
at their local theater. You can go to
www.expelledthemovie.com to find a theater in Missouri and Illinois.
2. Tell your State Rep. to support
Rep. Jane Cunningham’s Emily Brooker Higher Education Sunshine
Act (HB 1315) and tell
your Senator to support Sen. Chuck Purgason’s companion bill in the Senate, SB
983.
Of special note, as of the writing of this
article, HB 1315 – the Emily Brooker Higher Education Sunshine
Act - is
stalled in the House Higher Education Committee. We need to get this Committee to vote on the
bill in order to get it to the floor for debate, and time is of the essence.
Call, email or write these Reps and
encourage them to take action on this piece of legislation. All of these committee members can be
written to at the same address in the Capitol:
The
Representative’s name, Capitol Building, 201 West Capitol Ave., Jefferson City,
MO 65101
The following are the Committee members we
need to contact:
Rep. Gayle Kingery, Chair (from Poplar Bluff)
Capitol: (573)
751-4039
Home: (573)
785-6976
Email:
Gayle.Kingery@house.mo.gov
Rep. David
Pearce, Vice Chair (from Warrensburg)
Capitol: (573)
751-2272
Home: (660)
429-6312
Email:
David.Pearce@house.mo.gov
Rep. Kathlyn Fares (from Webster Groves)
Capitol: (573)
751-1285
Home: (314)
968-1766
Email:
Kathlyn.Fares@house.mo.gov
Rep. Tony George
(from Florissant)
Capitol: (573)
751-2135
Home: (314)
838-4571
Email:
Tony.George@house.mo.gov
Rep. Esther
Haywood (from Normandy)
Capitol: (573)
751-4468
Home: (314)
382-7676
Email:
Esther.Haywood@house.mo.gov
Rep. Rebecca
McClanahan (from Kirksville)
Capitol: (573)
751-4042
Home: (660)
888-1901
Email:
Rebecca.McClanahan@house.mo.gov
Rep. Sue Schoemehl (from St. Louis 63129)
Capitol: (573)
751-9804
Home: (314)
846-0717
Email:
Sue.Schoemehl@house.mo.gov
Rep. Mike
Thomson (from Maryville)
Capitol: (573)
751-9465
Home:
(660)582-4014
Email:
Mike.Thompson@house.mo.gov
3. Also, tell your State Rep. to support
Rep. Wayne Cooper’s Bill HB 2554, which is a bill that will protect the
academic freedom of educators to teach scientific evidence and a critical
analysis of Darwinism.
4. PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT
THING WE CAN DO is to encourage everyone (and everyone they know) to go see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed when
it opens in theaters on April 18th. Once people see this documentary they will
(or should) demand that the censorship and punishment of students, teachers and
professors, and violation of their freedoms of speech and inquiry be stopped
and stopped immediately.
As mentioned above, Expelled opens (or has opened depending upon when you’re reading
this article) on April 18th. It
is extremely important to fill those theater seats on opening weekend in order
to not only maintain the number of theaters showing the film, but to possibly
increase the number of theaters showing the movie.
In closing, remember, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
