Posted on 04/28/2005 3:00:00 AM PDT by Huber
The 2004 elections brought a conservative sweep to much of the nation, but Mecklenburg County was not part of it. As a result, our County Commission came back under the control of liberal Democrats and the arrogant and extremist liberal Parks Helms re-assumed his position as chairman of the County Commission. It should be no surprise to any of us that in his first months back in his position, he has worked tirelessly to expand government and raise taxes.
But this week, he announced another item on his agenda -- one that calls for economic and social conservatives to respond before its too late.
Mr. Helms has announced that he wants to see "Partner's Benefits" extended to those involved in homosexual relationships. During a time when our community is dealing with the destructive consequences of the breakdown of the family and the stress of ever-rising local taxes, the best idea Mr. Helms can seem to come up with is to official recognize homosexual couples with benefits purchased by your and my tax dollars. This is an affront to every taxpayer and particularly those taxpayers who find homosexuality morally wrong.
Christian and Social Conservatives should voice their opposition as this is yet another attempt by the radical homosexual community to impose their unhealthy and immoral lifestyle on people of morality and faith. We must not sit idly by while liberals and social manipulators seek to "re-define" what constitutes a family.
Economic Conservatives should voice their opposition as this is yet another example of Big Brother expansion into areas that will lead to higher taxes and more spending. To subsidize these homosexual couples is not only legally questionable under North Carolina law, it is fiscally foolish due to the unhealthy nature of the relationship itself. This extension of benefits will cost our county millions over the next decade.
Make no mistake, with a solid majority of like-minded Democrats on the County Commission, there is a good chance that this initiative will pass unless the citizens of this region speak up soon and loudly. That is why I am sending this email. We have a strategy in place that will "raise the volume" of protest against this action incrementally as the need arises. This email is a Call to Action which asks you to become personally involved in contacting the Mecklenburg County Commissioners to voice your opposition to extending benefits to homosexuals and unmarried partners of county employees.
Here's what I am asking you to do:
1. Write a brief email to our county commissioners stating your opposition to extending benefits to the partners of unmarried and homosexual couples. This is very important: Please do not be rude, threatening or unkind. You don't need to type in all capitals and you don't need to quote the Scripture. What the Commissioners understand is VOTES. Every email equals a vote. They understand public pressure. Every email measures public sentiment. Paste and clip this list of the email addresses of our county commissioners and put it in the address box of your email:
PHelms@helmshenderson.com; Bill@billjames.org; dan@votedanbishop.com; dumontclarke@mvalaw.com; 2woodard@bellsouth.net; normanam@aol.com; wirembert04@bellsouth.net; mroberts5@carolina.rr.com; jhpucket@bellsouth.net;
2. Please forward this email to everyone you can think of who might agree with our position. (Please do not violate your workplace policies on using company email lists or servers. It's never right to do wrong to do right.) Suggestions would be political lists, church lists, friends, etc. If you have a local blog, post this email here. When forwarding the email, try to remove the "FW:FW:fw:...." from the Subject Line as it often marks your email as spam or causes people to automatically "junk" the email.
3. Watch your email box for an email entitled "A Call to Action - Part 2". If it becomes necessary, we will offer another wave of protest against this initiative in a different form. Strategically, we are prepared to fight this as long as it takes. Sadly, this may end up costing the county commissioners who support this legislation politically and financially. It is really unnecessary for them to stir this up at this time when so many more important issues are at stake in our community. But if Mr. Helms is looking for a test of our strength and resolve, we need to make sure he gets a taste of it. Thank you for standing for the values that keep our families and our community strong, safe and conservative!
Sincerely,
Dan L. Burrell, Ed.D.
Charlotte, NC
The culture wars will be won or lost on local issues like this as much as on the national level. Please do what you can!
If partner benefits are offered to non homosexuals then I see no reason for them to not be offered to all people. Like it or not homosexuals also pay taxes.
BTTT ... will look at this later.
p.s., if the sender is trying to impress me with his Ed.D., it didn't work. (I'm very negative about Educationalists.) Think I should mention it to him?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could eliminate the employer's tax deduction for non-salary benefits? Then employers would just pay the employees, and the employees (in a perfect world) could buy their own insurance in a free market.
The manipulation of employee-benefits issues for social engineering purposes is very annoying.
I sent them a note asking how they could consider spending more taxpayer money, on one of the most privileged groups in the county, when there are children living in poverty.
As far as I know, "domestic partner" benefits are not offered to normal people, just homosexuals. Heterosexuals have to get married or nothing.
They they shouldn't be allowed for homosexuals either. imo
The unification of the Democratic Party and the gay agenda shows how easy it is to fall once you've started down the slippery slope to Hell.
We really need to bombard Helms and his fellow commissioners if there is to be a hope of stopping this.
We need your help. Charlotte is the largest city in NC. Government decisions made here are frequently copied across the state.
He is the pastor of Northside Baptist Church, one of Charlotte's mega-churches. He also writes a weekly column in the Charlotte world and is broadly influential in the region.
Did you send this to any friends and ask them to write the county commissioners yet?
I sent it to my uncle who lives in Charlotte. Me living elsewhere and all, should I email them too?
BTTT
BTW, are they proposing extending the benefits to roommates of heterosexual county employees? How is "domestic partner" defined by Meck. Co.?
If partner benefits are offered to non homosexuals then I see no reason for them to not be offered to all people. Like it or not homosexuals also pay taxes.
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Agreed. It doesn't have to be called marriage, but certainly any reasonable person would believe that homosexuals should at least be able to have their partner at their bedside at the hospital. Benefits is fine by me too. And I find it hard to understand why people would confine children to 'state' institutes that neglect children rather then having homosexuals adopt them. No, I think there are far more important things we could be doing - such as stopping the advance of socialism, then getting all riled up over homosexuality.
Agreed. It doesn't have to be called marriage, but certainly any reasonable person would believe that homosexuals should at least be able to have their partner at their bedside at the hospital. Benefits is fine by me too. And I find it hard to understand why people would confine children to 'state' institutes that neglect children rather then having homosexuals adopt them. No, I think there are far more important things we could be doing - such as stopping the advance of socialism, then getting all riled up over homosexuality.
You guys are missing the point. First of all you are falling for the liberal "fairness" argument. This line of thinking can be extended to "it isn't fair that some people should get to live in nice neighborhoods and others can't", etc. to essentially justify socialism.
Secondly, the initial point of benefits and a host of other family oriented laws and policies in our society was to support the continuation of a healthy society through fostering provision for the care of children. In a traditional family, ideally, one parent would consider child raising to be more than a casual venture and might make career sacrifices for the greater good. The implication of the proposed benefits extension to unmarried domestic partners is consistent with the revisionist definition of a "family" that is being propogated by the left. If you agree with the leftists that it is only fair to expand the definition of "families", you would find that most conservatives disagree with you. However if you believe that the traditional family is the bedrock of our society, you should see how Mr. Helms' proposal would undermine this.
Lastly, if you read research on children raised in homosexual households vs traditional families, you would probably come to the conclusion that the child suffers. However, this is a moot point in terms of the benefits argument, as any children, whether adopted or born to a homosexual through some fertilization procedure would already be covered, and where adoption is precluded by law, that is a separate issue to one of benefits.
I think that "domestic partner" is broadly defined as two consenting adults, regardless of their sexes.
Sure, email them and let them know that you have called all of your friends and relatives in Mecklenburg county and encouraged them to take action on this issue.
Even if you are not a voter, but the commisioners understand that you can influence voters in the area, then your email will have an influence.
Done.
wirembert04@bellsouth.net gets returned as an invalid address.
Thanks gitmo. The address for Wilhelmina Rembert is her official address. I called the secretary and she tells me that Dr. Rembert has been out of town for 8 days and her email is in overload. They gave me an alternate address which you will have in your freepmail.
http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/BOCC/Home.htm
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