Park district returns donation to atheist blogger

[rug]

Officials have 'no intention' of getting involved in dispute between commissioner, veterans group over pledge

By Jonathan Bullington, Chicago Tribune reporter
7:15 a.m. CST, December 3, 2013

After a local veterans group pulled its donations to the Morton Grove Park District in response to a park board member's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, a Naperville teacher and atheist blogger asked his readers for donations to replace the roughly $2,600 in lost funding.

But Hemant Mehta's check for $3,000 is on its way back to him after being refused by Park District officials.

In an email to Mehta, Park District Executive Director Tracey Anderson said the Park District board "has no intention of becoming embroiled in a First Amendment dispute."

The email also says Park District officials do not want to appear "sympathetic to," or show a perceived position for or against, "any particular political or religious cause."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/ct-pledge-of-allegiance-donation-met-20131203,0,349442.story

[struggle4progress]

1. The Park Board has ten-minute meetings that nobody attends, but this being America,

it makes the news -- because a political novice only recently elected has decided to make a political statement by not standing for the pledge, the local American legion has decided to protest by refusing to donate, and Friendly Atheist has further drawn attention to this tempest-in-a-teapot by publicizing his donation, which the Park Board has declined, producing further publicity

Who's right? Everybody and nobody, I think. Ashta has every right not to stand for the pledge IMO, but it's just a bit of a pose for him to claim he's standing up for dissenters, since hardly anybody ever comes to the meetings anyway -- and he's not a good enough politician to side-step the issue when he misses the pledge by coming late. The American Legion has every right to decide whether or not they want to contribute, but it's really silly to get all in a funk because one political novice isn't standing for the pledge. It seems a nice gesture for Friendly Atheist to raise money to replace the lost monies, but he apparently managed to offer the donation in manner inviting the interpretation that the Park Board has taken sides in the pie-fight. It's quite idiotic for the Park Board to decline Friendly Atheist's cash, but the Board may have correctly reached the conclusion that accepting the funds would have prolonged the noisy much-ado-about-nothing, which presumably isn't the sort of thing the Park Board Commissioners thought they were volunteering six years of their lives to do, when they ran for the office

America! Land of blowhards!

Dan Ashta (AG-GAG)
... Dan Ashta is pursuing an LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, with a thesis examining constitutional law issues raised by Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Mr. Ashta maintains a private practice in Illinois, and has served his local government as a Natural Resources Commissioner and also as a Park Board Commissioner ... Mr. Ashta's areas of personal interest include baseball and his dogs.

Letter to the editor: Candidate states his case for office
Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:38 pm
... My name is Dan Ashta. I am running for Morton Grove Park Board Commissioner. The position is a six-year, volunteer position ... Neighbors encouraged me to run when I shared some ideas ... The dog park idea is popular ... A modest dog park involves light start-up cost ... Funds come from park users ... My background is in law and real estate, with focus on environmental law and policy ... My campaign does not use signs, for example, which must be tossed ... http://www.buglenewspapers.com/opinion/article_366ba308-9665-11e2-ad48-001a4bcf6878.html

Lawyer’s refusal to stand for Pledge leads to funding loss for park district
Posted Oct 28, 2013 8:13 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Morton Grove Park District Commissioner Dan Ashta says putting the Pledge of Allegiance on the meeting agenda makes him feel that the district is compelling people to speak ... Ashta said he didn’t feel it was right to force that choice on people who might oppose and want to reform the government, or people who might have religious objections to the pledge. Ashta spoke after the commander of the American Legion’s Post 134 ... Commander Joseph Lampert said his group was withholding funds until everyone stands for the pledge ...

Park commissioner doesn’t back down on pledge boycott
By: Rick Kambic
November 22, 2013 2:16 p.m.
Morton Grove Park Commissioner Dan Ashta was two minutes late to the Nov. 21 monthly board meeting, missing both the Pledge of Allegiance and a quarter of the meeting. “If I had been on time, I still would have sat down during the pledge,” Ashta said after the eight-minute meeting. “No one has told me that my legal interpretation is wrong and I’ve pledged my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. I see no reason to change my stance” ... No members of the community attended the meeting, despite numerous claims on social media of intended protests, both in favor and against Ashta ...