Greatest Contribution “Separation of Church and State…”

Modern Era Remembrance 

Attributed to Lowell Weicker 

Separation of church and state is the United States’ “greatest contribution to world civilization.”

“The United States is not a Christian nation. It is a great nation with Christians, among others, in it.

“The time has come to knock off this religion business in American politics. There’s no end to the mischief that can occur—it is like putting nitroglycerine in a Warring blender.…

 “Our greatness is based on the fact that there is no official religion.”

Honorable Lowell P. Weicker Jr. 

He gained national recognition as a U.S. Senator during the period of congressional hearings considering charges brought against the thirty-seventh President of the United States Richard Milhous Nixon.

The United States Senate Watergate Committee (officially, the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities) considering the case of President Nixon was formed February 7, 1973; and dissolved after publication of its final report June 27, 1974.

Senate Watergate Committee SENATORS

Members of Democratic Party Sam Ervin (Chairman-North Carolina) Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) Joseph Montoya (New Mexico) Herman Talmadge (Georgia)

Members of Republican Party Howard Baker (Ranking Member-Tennessee) Edward Gurney (Florida) Lowell Weicker (Connecticut)

https://watergate.info/impeachment/members-of-the-house-judiciary-committee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Watergate_Committee#Members
https://watergate.info/chronology/1974-chronology
https://www.azquotes.com/author/41224-Lowell_P_Weicker_Jr

Paris, France1931 - Middletown, Connecticut 2023

Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was born 1931 in Paris, France, of American parents. His membership in political parties included Republican (before 1990); Connecticut Party (1990–1995); Independent (1995–2023)

National, Governmental Service

• Active duty and reserve U.S. Army (1950s and 1960s)
• First Selectman of the Connecticut town of Greenwich (1964–1968)
• Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (January 1963 – January 1969)
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1971)
• Member of the U.S. Senate (January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1989)
• Governor of Connecticut (January 9, 1991 – January 4, 1995)

Advice and Self Perception
Weicker in interview with Hartford Courant

To the young and to Contenders

“Don’t be afraid to lose.” “If you’re not afraid to lose, you’re the most dangerous man or woman on the field.

“You can speak the truth. … Maybe, if you tell the truth, you’ll lose. It is also true (that) maybe… you’ll win.”

“Forget the party.… You’ve got to value the state of Connecticut more than your political party.”

In office, there must be “negotiations” with officials who hold membership political parties other than your own.

Legacy as Perceived by Weicker 

“I think the income tax was probably the toughest governmental exercise I had ever been through.”

“I would like to think my … crowning achievement was I wrote most of the disabilities laws in the country, Watergate, oceans research. I can’t say I enjoyed Watergate, but I think I did a fair job.”


June 28, 2023, News
Remembered

“I admire his independent way of leading …”

He “never ducked a tough battle, absolutely convinced that he was right, and he usually was. He was always bigger than life, and he always will be. …” 

— Current Governor of Connecticut Edward “Ned” Miner Lamont Jr—

His “service to our nation and state was always driven by the public good, whether it was caring for the disabled or defending our democracy and the constitution— (he never shied away) from entering ‘the arena’ of public affairs….”

— Former Member of the Connecticut State House and current Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Joseph “Joe” David Courtney—

As Connecticut’s governor, he “helped create the state income tax while becoming one of the most dominant figures in Connecticut politics for decades.” 

—Hartford Courant—

Context: Exemplary of Modern Era’s True Blue

Weicker's passing opens a moment to reflect on U.S. eras and particularly the Modern era, which at present has the look and feel of a regressive era.

Major Eras catalogued in U.S. history…
according to some historians and journalists, are:

• The Age of Exploration (1492-1585)
• The Colonial Era (1607-1754)
• The Federalist Period (1788 -1800)
• The Era of Westward Expansion (1801-1861) [including Age of Jackson 1815-1840 and 1830s “Trail of Tears” forced removal of Native American tribes]
• The Reconstruction Era (1866-1877)
• The Prohibition Era (1920 to 1933)
• The Cold War Era (1945/1947-1991) and
• The Second Cold War Era (Cold War II or New Cold War beginning with U.S.-led NATO expansion to incorporate Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic from late 1990s, or from U.S. launched Global War on Terrorism in 2001).

Modern or Medieval 

The U.S. Modern era—meaning a time “still within living memory”— is dated by researchers, historians, thinkers as beginning at the end of World War II in 1945 and extending through the present day.

In terms of quality of being or all-round conditions—more advanced than earlier ancient and medieval times—the Modern Era is characterized by substantive forward movement not mere frivolity, fad, self-absorption, backwardness in act or attitude.

The Modern era is known for marked progress driven by deliberate human effort—and aimed at bettering the human condition through advances in a variety of sectors: politics, industry, society, economics, commerce, transport, communication, mechanization, automation, science, medicine, technology, and culture—that transform an Old World into a Modern or New World.

Whatever is the nature of the individual religion, in Weicker’s words The swing left or right is too extreme to hold the center, to mend and uphold the Union.

The time has come to remove religion (no matter how “religion” is defined or expressed) from American politics. Retaining religion subjective and divisive by definition “is like putting nitroglycerine in a Warring blender,” Lowell Weicker said.

“The United States is not a Christian nation. It is a great nation with Christians among others in it. But our greatness is based on the fact that there is no official religion.”

Sources

Connecticut Mirror June 28, 2023 “Connecticut reacts to the death of Lowell Weicker: The former Connecticut governor and U.S. senator played an outsized role in state politics during his career” Mark Pazniokas and Erica E. Phillips https://ctmirror.org/2023/06/28/lowell-weicker-death/

Hartford Courant, June 28, 2023“Former Connecticut Gov. and U.S. Sen. Lowell P. Weicker dies at 92” Author Christopher Keating | Reporter https://www.courant.com/2023/06/28/former-connecticut-lowell-p-weicker-dies-at-92/

Encyclopedia sources
Quote source

https://www.azquotes.com/author/41224-Lowell_P_Weicker_Jr

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

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Public Problems require Civil Service Solutions not Parochial Profiteering

Wiener’s “SB 899” panders with band aids, blurs church-state separation, fails to proffer public-interest solutions

Quick fixes conceived under pressure of crisis (and compounded crises) made not by inadequacy of the entity or institution of government — but by the impenetrable corruption, nepotism, incompetence, carelessness, and neglect of men and women ensconced in and around public office over many years.

Alternatives which are narrow-minded, shortsighted “nongovernmental” (anti-“bureaucracy,” anti-“government”), which amass wealth masked as doing good, which cash in and drain the public treasury (as surely as the military industrial complex) never aid public health and welfare. 

 

More often than not, as with Wiener's proposal, they selfishly

(a) breach the crucial barrier, in place to avert conflict and tribalism, which separates sectarianism from civil service (State)

(b) undermine essential, duly-designated public sector issues and priorities; and 

(c) further destroy public taxes-funded (and mandated) competent civil service for the general public health and welfare.

P

oliticians’ Pandering Never Solves Problems 

Duke University graduate, Fulbright Scholar, Harvard Law graduate Scott Wiener was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up in southern New Jersey, and worked as a litigator for the bankrupt multinational Limited Liability Partnership Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe headquartered in San Francisco, California.

• In 2008, his former firm “filed a voluntary petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy for protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California” throwing the firm into chaos over who was “entitled to revenue from client matters pending at the time of bankruptcy.” In 2016, the dispute reached the California Supreme Court.

• In November 2016 Scott Wiener became a state senator for California’s District 11.

• Estimated daily homelessness (2019) in Wiener’s old and later states of residency

Pennsylvania: 13,199

New Jersey: 8,862

California: 151,278

• Public school student homelessness conditions school year 2017-2018

Pennsylvania: 440 students unsheltered, 6,681 in shelters, 2,231 in hotels/motels, and 21,901 doubled up.
New Jersey: 76 unsheltered, 1,982 in shelters, 1,511 in hotels/motels, and 9,665 doubled up
California: 10,407 unsheltered, 17,299 in shelters, 13,713 in hotels/motels, and 221,639 doubled up.

March 2020

S

an Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener introduces “SB 899 to allow faith institutions (such as churches, synagogues, and mosques) along with nonprofit hospitals to build affordable housing on their property by right, even if local zoning prohibits this type of housing.”

Wiener’s stated Rationale for his quick fix

• Because: “Churches and other religious and charitable institutions often have land to spare, and they should be able to use that land to build affordable housing and thus further their mission.”

• Because: “California desperately needs housing of all kinds, including affordable housing for ‘our’ low income residents.”

N

ONSENSE!

Contrary to the state senator’s enthusiasm for further breaching of the time-honored doctrine of separation of church and state, the government should not be in the business of helping sectarians further their “mission.” Their “mission” is their issue.

Nevertheless… sheep follow

California State Assembly (15th Assembly District) Hillary’ite Buffy Jo Christina Wicks:

“The State needs to consider all options for alleviating our [it is disgusting how politicians and media personalities incessantly and insincerely use the first person plural possessive "our"] housing crisis, and removing roadblocks for the faith community is a critical step in the right direction.”

Ethically compromised San Francisco Mayor London Breed:

“Our housing shortage is the result of decades of under building and restrictive zoning, and as a result, the cost of housing in San Francisco is unaffordable for many of our residents. We need solutions to eliminate the red tape that gets in the way of creating more affordable homes in our city.”

Breed’s get-government (unelected-bureaucrats) -off-our-backs reasoning” is ideologically scripted and fatally flawed. Her facts only minimally true. 

San Francisco is a big place with many buildings. And every municipality in the country has, one expects, properly thought out zoning laws.

In serious terms of permanent priorities and principled policies, politicians— as always, operating from crisis to crisis and election to election — fail to address critical issues in the public interest and for the long term.

C

ritical issues crafty politicians omit

• Inferior education and training

• Inadequate transferable skills

• Uneasy or impossible access to mental health and referral services and more general human resources

• Lack of or insufficient innovative workplaces planned and designed to replace incursion of automation

• Under- and unemployment

• Work and income insufficiency to cover costs of housing and related necessities

• Wherewithal overall (mentally and physically) to stave off homelessness

People don’t need churches or other profiteers calling themselves non-profits.

People do not need others' guilt or alms or "do-gooding" "missions" or 

condescending, self-serving “charity.”

People don't need proselytizing

 People need strengthening resources permanently enabling self-sufficiency and independence.

Why not for public good instead of mere private gain employ the principle of —

E

minent Domain

As to the specific area of affordable housing, eminent domain is the better public course for the public good.

It lacks hidden motives and /or government laundering public money through private sectarian “nonprofit” enterprises, or private sectarian “nonprofits” laundering money through government. 

It is a traditional public instrument that avoids breaching important public doctrines such as the separation of church and state.

The law of eminent domain (land acquisition, compulsory purchase) means the State, Province or National Government is empowered “to take private property for public use.”

To serve the general public, the federal legislature, acting on behalf of the general public, could declare excess properties held by religious places or spaces (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., shouldn't object since they are such do-gooders) for public use; and make a one-time “just compensation” to the owners.

Sources

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

“New Jersey Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/nj

“Pennsylvania Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/paa

“California Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ca

https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/20200306-senator-wiener-introduces-housing-legislation-allow-churches-and-other-charitable

https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/biography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Wiener

Eminent domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain#United_States

Curbed San Francisco “New bill would allow churches and hospitals to build housing on their land: Faith can be your shelter, but it probably shouldn’t be the only one” Adam Brinklow

March 6, 2020 https://sf.curbed.com/2020/3/6/21168455/wiener-church-affordable-housing-sb-899-bay-area

Curbed reports on “homes, streets, neighborhoods, and cities as inextricably related” (and brings) “local issues to a broad, national audience.”  https://www.curbed.com/pages/about-curbed

London Breed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Breed

Buffy Wicks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_Wicks

Other supporters of Wiener in their own narrow interests:

Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California Executive Director Amie Fishman

Nonprofit Housing Association of Southern California Executive Director Alan Greenlee

https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/20200306-senator-wiener-introduces-housing-legislation-allow-churches-and-other-charitable

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