Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
Hawaii Chapter
           Call to Action !

  Save Hawaii's Educational system!

Monday, July 30, 2001
 
The following important message is from AU-Hawaii member Mitch Kahle who
is running with the ball on marshalling community support to stop
Right Wing extremists from destroying Hawaii's educational system. The only
modifications we have made is to set up a separate link for the advance
text of Kahle's testimony and a direct link to the BOE agenda web site. We've
also removed the links to relavent Advertiser and Star Bulletin pieces on
the issue because the links are already noted elsewhere on our
AU-Hawaii WEB site.

Double-check the BOE site (Click Here) for possible last-minute changes in
the agenda, time, date etc.

Aloha Freethinkers: This is an URGENT call to action. We need your help to
stop "Religious Creationists" from infecting Hawaii's public schools!

The situation in Hawaii is similar to the recent creationist attempts to
discredit evolution in Kansas. For background information, please see
links to press articles at the bottom of the message.

In a nutshell, the Education Committee has introduced new language to the
Hawaii State Department of Education science performance standards that
would allow biblical creation myths to be taught alongside evolutionary
biology. These so-called "alternative theories of origin" do not have any
basis in science and are instead an attempt to break the constitutional
separation of state and church by teaching religion in the public
schools.

Please write testimony urging the Board of Education to reject the
inclusion of any non-scientific "alternative theories of origin"
with the science performance standards. Fax or email (no time for
snail mail) all written testimony to:

Hawaii State Board of Education
P.O. Box 2360, Honolulu, HI 96804
Phone: (808) 586-3349
Fax: (808) 586-3433
Email: BOE_Hawaii@notes.k12.hi.us

Herbert Watanabe: Chairperson,
Members: Winston Sakurai, Karen
Knudsen, Shannon Ajifu, Lex Brodie,
Michael Nakamura, Denise Matsumoto,
Marilyn Harris, Donna Ikeda, Keith
Sakata, Sherwood Hara, Carol Gabbard,
Meyer Ueoka, and Matthew McLane

The Board of Education will consider the "creationist" proposal on
Thursday, August 2, 2001 starting around 7:00PM, at the
Department of Education, 1390 Miller Street, 4th floor, in Honolulu.

Click Here to see my testimony. It is provided as a guide. Contact me at
(808) 524-6208 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Mitch Kahle
Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church (and member
AU-Hawaii)

P.S. Please forward this email to as many supporters as possible.

http://www.geocities.com/au_hawaii/
http://calltoaction.blogspot.com/