To register your complaint, contact:
Patricia Lyons, President
Senior Citizens, Inc
3025 Bull Street, Savannah GA 31405
Telephone: 912-236-0363 extension 115
Fax 912-236-3030
SAVANNAH NOW
“Preston Blackwelder proudly showed off a painting of his grandmother that had hung next to the front door of his Port Wentworth home.
She was the woman who led him to God, Blackwelder said Friday.
And with that firm religious footing, Blackwelder said, it would be preposterous to stop praying before meals at Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center because of a federal guideline.
‘She would say pray anyway,’ Blackwelder said of his grandmother. ‘She’d say don’t listen.’
But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.
Thus, on Thursday, the open prayer at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.
The dilemma is being hashed out by the Port Wentworth city attorney, said Glenn ‘Pig’ Jones, the city’s mayor.
Strict guidelines
Tim Rutherford, Senior Citizens Inc. vice president, said some of his staff recently visited the center and noticed people praying shortly before lunch was served. Rutherford said his company provides meals like baked chicken, steak tips and rice and salads at a cost of about $6 a plate. Seniors taking the meals pay 55 cents and federal money foots the rest of the bill, Rutherford said.
‘We can’t scoff at their rules,’ he said of federal authorities. ‘It’s a part of the operational guidelines.’
Rutherford said the moment of silence was introduced to protect that funding. He said although the change may have been misinterpreted, perhaps his company could have done a better job selling it.
‘It’s interpreted that we’re telling people that they can’t pray, but we aren’t saying that,’ he said. ‘We’re asking them to pray to themselves. Have that moment of silence.’
‘Can’t thank God’
Mayor Jones said he was outraged by the change and has promised to find a solution.
‘It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever did as mayor is to look at those people in the eyes and ask them to be patient with me and honor their God in a moment of silence until I can have a resolution to this,’ Jones said. ‘For me to look at their eyes and tell them they can’t thank God for their food, it’s unheard of – I can’t take it.’
Jones said he enlisted the help of Port Wentworth’s city attorney and scheduled a Tuesday morning meeting with Senior Citizens Inc. to determine the best solution.
Jones added he also flirted with the idea of ending a contract the city has with Senior Citizens Inc.
‘Like one lady said, ‘You can stop me from speaking, but you can’t stop me from praying what’s in my heart,’‘ he said. ‘But the best answer right now is that we’re trying to get the best information possible and legal council is looking at what would happen if we continued to pray.’
Invasion of privacy
Blackwelder said the center’s already fragile visitors have been rattled.
Along with threatening the center’s amenities, the decision has frightened the people who use it.
‘Their security consciousness is prevalent anyway,’ he said. ‘You’re threatening their security with their meals and the place where they spend the majority of the day.
‘This is, in my view, an unnecessary intrusion into the private lives of individuals. It’s a bad place to draw a line in the sand.”
OOOOO...Mr. Rutledge can go shove his meals in a dark place!
This is totally outrageous and I would be one surly curmudgeon praying LOUDLY in their stupid faces.
What a bunch of retards.
“Scuse me...Rutherford.
Mayor Jones is a coward. Take a stand, Mayor.
Institutionalized thinking.
1}Your not part of the operation, your a beneficiary of it.
2}You should know your religious rights enumerated in the Constituion
3}Exercise your religious rights, and if they try to stop you, sue under Title 18 section 242 - Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.
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Your not a 'subject' of the government, so STOP acting like one!
When they stop taking Christians tax dollars, you know the ones with ‘in God we trust’ on them, to hold elders food hostage...
Those who worship have to step up and take care of folks and get government out of our schools, senior centers, soup kitchens, pantries, hospitals, pregnancy centers, after school programs, etc..
If people keep being PC and not speaking out, we’ll be back in the catacombs.
I’m not having it.
I haven’t been to Savannah for while, maybe it’s time to visit.
Does anyone know EXACTLY what the rules are that this food service VP is referring to? Does anyone know the EXACT wording of the guidelines this guy is referring to? Is there a copy available online of the guidelines he is referring to? THIS is something we need to see.
