Cop Tells Students They Can't Pray At The Supreme Court

Click to read full story from World Net Daily

Posted: July 15, 2010

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

U.S. Supreme Court

A Christian private-school teacher is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow constitutionally protected prayer outside the court building after her class was "abruptly" ordered to stop praying on the grounds.

Maureen Rigo, a teacher at Wickenburg Christian Academy in Arizona, took her class to the Supreme Court complex May 5 for an educational tour.

The students stood off to the side at the bottom steps of the Oval Plaza, bowed their heads and quietly prayed amongst themselves, according to the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal team Rigo contacted after the incident.

"Even though they were not obstructing traffic, not demonstrating and praying quietly in a conversational tone so as to not attract attention, a court police officer approached the group and told them to stop praying in that public area immediately," ADF reported. "The prayer was stopped based on a statute, 40 U.S.C. §6135, which bars parades and processions on Supreme Court grounds."

That statute reads as follows:

It is unlawful to parade, stand, or move in processions or assemblages in the Supreme Court Building or grounds, or to display in the Building and grounds a flag, banner, or device designed or adapted to bring into public notice a party, organization, or movement.

According to the Sonoran News, the police tapped Rigo on the shoulder and said, "Ma'am, I'm not going to tell you that you can't pray, but you can't do it here. Please go somewhere else."

A message left by WND at Wickenburg Christian Academy hadn't been returned at the time of this report.

ADF sent a letter to U.S. Supreme Court officials today, imploring them to stop their police officers from barring people from quietly praying outside the court.

"Mrs. Rigo was not engaging in a parade, procession or assembly. She was speaking in a conversational level to those around her with her head bowed," a letter signed by ADF attorney Nathan Kellum explains. "There is no reason to silence Mrs. Rigo's activities since these activities do not attract attention, create a crowd or give off the appearance of impartiality. The ban on public prayers cannot hope to survive First Amendment scrutiny."

ADF argues that the wording of the statute cited by the police officer does not apply.

"The wording of the statute does not seemingly contemplate quiet prayers like Mrs. Rigo's," Kellum states. "Such prayers are 'not designed or adopted to bring' Mrs. Rigo 'into public notice.' Indeed, Mrs. Rigo's prayers were not communicated to anyone outside of God and her very small group."

The group noted that the prayers are akin to routine conversations that take place during Supreme Court tours every day and that Rigo's class was not engaging in a parade, procession or assembly.

"The only logical explanation for prohibiting Mrs. Rigo's activities, while allowing other conversations, pertains to the viewpoint of Mrs. Rigo's expression," Kellum argued. "[T]he Supreme Court police have not targeted a subject matter or class of expression, but targeted a particular viewpoint for censorship. They have singled out and censored religious prayer as the only form of conversation to be silenced."

The letter states that the prayer ban "exemplifies viewpoint discrimination" in which "the government targets not subject matter, but particular views taken by speakers" in violation of the First Amendment.

In the letter, the ADF demanded that court officials allow Rigo to return and "engage in conversation-level prayers directed to her nearby companions and God."

Police have three weeks to respond. If they don't, ADF has threatened legal action to protect Rigo's constitutional rights.

"Christians shouldn't be silenced for exercising their beliefs through quiet prayer on public property," ADF senior counsel Nate Kellum said in a statement. "The last place you'd expect this kind of obvious disregard for the First Amendment would be on the grounds of the U.S. Supreme Court itself, but that's what happened."

Army Suicides At All Time High

Click to read full story from CNN

Washington (CNN) -- More U.S. soldiers killed themselves last month than in recent Army history, according to Army statistics released Thursday, confounding officials trying to reverse the grim trend.

The statistics show that 32 soldiers killed themselves in June, the highest number in a single month since the Vietnam era. Twenty-one of them were on active duty, while 11 were in the National Guard or Army Reserve in an inactive status.

Seven of those soldiers killed themselves while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Army numbers.

The spike comes after the monthly suicide numbers had dropped following a January high of 28, and Army officials admit they still haven't answered the question of why troops are committing suicide at a record rate.

"There were no trends to any one unit, camp, post or station," said Col. Chris Philbrick, head of the Army's suicide prevention task force. "I have no silver bullet to answer the question why."

He said he could offer only what he has said before: "Continued stress on the force and the opportunities we have been facing in terms of the challenges in the Army continue to cause these events to take place."

Including the June numbers, 145 soldiers have killed themselves this year, more than half of the total number for all of 2009, according to Army statistics.

In 2009, a record-breaking year for suicides in the service, 245 soldiers killed themselves.

In another attempt to put a halt to the trend, the Army released a suicide prevention video, a follow-up to one released last year. The updated video is designed to "hit home" with soldiers and instill the importance of getting help, Philbrick said.

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JMC Ministries Response

written by Miranda Caverley

The thing that disturbed me most about this article was not just the article its' self, but the comments that people left at the bottom the the article. They were uncaring and unsympathetic that these Military Men/Women took their own lives.

One person who went by the screenname jesussucks said, "Too many wimps in the Military today makes me sick to think these guys think they could stand with the Best when in reality they nothing but a bunch cry babies"

n0n1m0us3 said,"I'm sure soldiers kill themselves for the same reasons as civilians, hopelessness and depression."

max3377 said,"do they really believe a video will reduce the amount of suicides? talk about doing the bare minimum - that's the US for ya"

There were some comments backlashing at those like "jesussucks" standing up and telling these people to stop saying such horrible things about our troops.

Just the main page of the comments alone, there was not one person that said, how they were praying for the families of those who killed themselves. No empathy was really shown no compassion. Just criticism and heartless Americans attacking those who are fighting to keep us all safe who came to the end of their ropes and felt there was no other way out of their torment than to take their own lives.

Those who do not serve in the military or do not have family that have or are serving will never know the sacrifices our military men and women make everyday just so that those like "jesussucks" can get on a website and have the freedom of speech to bash those who are fighting to give them those rights.

The suicide rate of Army troops is just the tip of the iceburg really. CNN only covered the Army, but what about the Airforce, Marines, Navy, and Coast Guard suicide rates? We have been in a war for 9 years! You don't think after 9 years that those serving would start to get at their breaking points of how much they can handle? When year after year they are deployed into a war zone not knowing if they will live to come home to see their families?

America today seems more concerned with Same Sex Marriage issues, Schools focused on battling to teach kindergarten children about sex, and even hand out condoms to them. Who is going to get the new Iphone 4? What new movies are coming out that you just have to go see, and whether Lady Gaga can get more "likes" on Facebook than President Obama.

When in reality America should be focused on the war that our troops have been fighting for 9 years. We have the worst oil spill in the history of the world happening right now in the Gulf Of Mexico. America is in the biggest recession since the great depression, and that the unemployment rate is at its' highest since the great depression. American citizens are homeless, hungry and struggling day to day just to survive. Where is the empathy fellow American Citizens? Where is your compassion? When it says right at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Americans need to start coming together to help support our troops instead of tearing them down. If you see a friend or family member who is in the military showing signs that they may harm themselves reach out and help them before it is too late. If your neighbor has lost their job and doesn't have enough money to pay their utility bills, or rent help them if you can. This country was founded on hard working people who helped each other. If it wasn't for them and their compassion and caring many would not be here today.

When another country is in trouble, the U.S.A is there. When a disaster happens in another country, the U.S.A is there. But when disaster strikes our own shores, and our own people are struggling and even taking their own lives we call them wimps, lazy no good people. America needs to get back to the basics and start showing love and compassion towards one another and put all these petty, stupid, selfish agendas aside and focus on how to change the path our Country is on. For a house divided cannot stand.

18th Century Ship Uncovered At World Trade Center Site

Click to read full story from Fox News

NEW YORK -- Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.

It's hoped the artifact can be retrieved by the end of the day on Thursday, said archaeologist Molly McDonald. A boat specialist was going to the site to take a look at it.

McDonald said she wanted to at least salvage some timbers; it was unclear if any large portions could be lifted intact.

"We're mostly clearing it by hand because it's kind of fragile," she said, but construction equipment could be used later in the process.

McDonald and archaeologist A. Michael Pappalardo were at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when the discovery was made Tuesday morning.

"We noticed curved timbers that a back hoe brought up," McDonald said Wednesday. "We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull over the last two days."

The two archeologists work for AKRF, a firm hired to document artifacts discovered at the site. They called the find significant but said more study was needed to determine the age of the ship.

"We're going to send timber samples to a laboratory to do dendrochronology that will help us to get a sense of when the boat was constructed," said McDonald. Dendrochronology is the science that uses tree rings to determine dates and chronological order.

A 100-pound anchor was found a few yards from the ship hull on Wednesday, but they're not sure if it belongs to the ship. It's 3 to 4 feet across, McDonald said.

BP Stops Oil Leak With New Pipe Cap

Click to read full story from Fox News

NEW ORLEANS -- BP said its capped-off well appeared to be holding steady Friday morning, almost midway into a white-knuckle waiting period in which engineers watched the pressure gauges for signs of a leak.

Results monitored from control rooms on ships at sea and hundreds of miles away at the company's U.S. headquarters in Houston showed the oil staying inside the cap, rather than escaping through any undiscovered breaches, BP PLC vice president Kent Wells said on a conference call.

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JMC Ministries Response

We are now at day 88 of the oil spill. Our prayers are that this cap holds and that no more oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. But what is done is done, and the devastation of the oil spill is going to take longer to clean up the oil than it did to get this cap on the pipe to stop the oil.

Our prayers go out to those being effected by the Oil Spill in Gulf as they face the months and even years of clean up and effects from the oil spill.

11 year old grows Vegitables For The Homeless

Click to read full story from Earth 911.com

by Tonic
Published on July 14th, 2010

When Katie Stagliano was in third grade, she planted a cabbage in her family’s small garden. When it grew to an astounding 40 pounds, she donated it to a soup kitchen, where it was made into meals for 275 people (with the help of ham and rice). “I thought, ‘Wow, with that one cabbage I helped feed that many people?’” says Katie, now entering sixth grade. “I could do much more than that.”

So, Katie started planting vegetable gardens as part of her nonprofit Katie’s Krops — she has six right now — including one the length of a football field at her school in her hometown of Summerville, S.C. Classmates, her family and other people in the community help plant and water, and Bonnie Plants donates seedlings. This past year, Katie took her commitment to a new level: she has given soup kitchens over 2,000 pounds of lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables. Katie and her helpers are now harvesting the spring planting, and another 1,200 pounds will be donated by October.

“She just walks in like a proud little girl with her treasures in her arm,” says Sue Hanshaw, CEO of Tricounty Family Ministries, the soup kitchen in Charleston, S.C. where Katie first brought her 40-pound crucifer. “I love what she exudes, caring for others. It’s made a big impact on a lot of people.”

Says Elois Mackey, 49, a formerly homeless mother of two who has received a weekly vegetable delivery from Katie since September: “She is showing that you can help other people no matter how young you are. I love the vegetables she brings.”

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JMC Ministries Response

Written By Miranda Caverley

In today's society as the media promotes sex, drugs, and violence to the youth Of America. This one little girl is not being influenced by all that garbage. She is making a difference in her community one garden at a time. For those who say one person can't make a difference you are clearly wrong. This little girl single hand-idly has fed hundreds of people by just sacrificing a few minutes a day to tend and plant her garden. The fruits of her labor are clear and she has helped feed hundreds of people who were in need of food at just 11 years old.

If an 11 year old can do this why can't we? Set a side a few hours a month to volunteer to help others if you can. Give a donation to help someone in need if you can't physically go out and help. God can use you no matter where you are in life. So Start making a difference today, the power of one is amazing.