United Women’s Forum Minutes Nov. 14, 2007

Leslie Swartwood welcomed the women to the home of Lauralee Christensen for our monthly meeting.

Opening prayer was offered by Barbara Spuhler followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Leslie invited Debra Poulsen to speak to the group about business items of concern. Debra began by introducing Jill Burton from the Lighted Candle Society. Jill has had a rich background working in the area of communications in Washington DC and in public policy for the Hinckley Institute at the University of Utah. She holds degrees in communications and Business Management from the University of Utah. Jill is looking for stories of how pornography has affected people’s lives through broken marriages, disrupted families or troubled teens. She asked for anyone to call her or email stories for various purposes and use with the Lighted Candle Society. Jill can be reached at: jill@lightedcandle.org or 801-580-4235. Callers may remain anonymous if desired.

Debra introduced Laura Bunker who has worked diligently fighting against the Hate Crimes Bill. Laura spoke briefly about new proposed legislation EDNA – (Employee Non-Discrimination Act) which is attempting to legitimize gay rights thru justification and celebration thereby forcing cultural approval and redefining the institution of marriage. She suggested that we each take the time to read the Bill and visit United Families International website: www.ufi.org to get further analysis and information.

Linda Reeves next spoke briefly about four recent bills signed in California by Governor Schwarzenegger. These bills are as follows:

SB 777: Bans in school textbooks and publications and activity any "discriminatory bias against homosexuals, bisexuals or transsexuals. The law prohibits any "instruction" or "activity" that is perceived to "promote discriminatory bias" against "gender", including "cross-dressing, sex changes and bisexuality". It will require that all public school instruction and activities positively portray transexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality to children in classes as young as kindergarten. Those in opposition to the bill say it will prohibit anything that suggests that the natural family--a man and a woman, married with children, is normal or typical. The term, "mother and father", "husband and wife" will be banned because they suggest that heterosexuality is the norm, even though that is manifestly the case, even in California.

AB 394: Requires school training programs to teachers and students against "harassment" through training, publications, postings, and curriculum. It fails to define the word "harassment".

AB 102: Awards married names to unmarried couples. Allows couples to choose surnames upon registration as domestic partners, creating the public image of homosexual marriage in California. (Examples include: "Mr. and Mr. Jones and "Mrs. and Mrs. Smith").

AB 14: Prohibits state funding for any organization that does not support Tran sexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality. (This includes religious-based day care, hospitals, pre-schools, after-school programs, food and housing programs, senior centers, job programs and more.)

Debra gave us our “Call to Action” ideas of what we can do to stand up in our time – this month - to preserve what our Founding Fathers envisioned for our country. She asked each of us to give a timeless Christmas gift to all of our families which would strengthen homes, communities and our nation. She asked that we 1) Write a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger to express our disapproval of his actions regarding his signing of these bills and; 2) Send this request to at least 10 other women (particularly those who live in California) who would also write him a letter and who would then invite 10 others to repeat this. 3) Respond back to United Women’s Forum about how many were contacted so we could tally the count. We would like to see how far we can extend this effort to express ourselves to California’s governor.

Our guest speaker, Stephen Studdert was introduced by Marge Clayton. Steve is a former Special Assistant to three U.S. Presidents: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. He has represented U.S. Presidents in diplomatic assignments to over 100 nations and has had broad and varied experiences throughout the world. He began by telling us that the White House has no front door and asked if we knew why that is so. He told us that it is for protocol because some visitors are very offended if they are received at the wrong door so all the doors are given names so that one door is not more important than another.

Steve remarked about the business items previously mentioned – that they are worthy of our attention and moral issues such as pornography and diverse sexual orientation are destroying our country. There are now about as many women as men involved in pornography. He recommended a very excellent book to read titled “Boys Adrift” by Sax which discusses the influence that pornography is having on teenage boys.

Mr. Studdert spoke of experiences he has had in and out of our country with the American flag. He was pleased that we said the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the meeting and told of a story of the U.S. Chief of Protocol bowing to the Queen of England. “He almost got fired,” he said, “because in the United States, we bow to no man (woman) but to the flag only.” He commented that there is a declining respect for our flag and what it stands for. In Poland there was an event where many old and homemade American flags were displayed. The Polish people were risking arrest by displaying these flags but it was their expression of respect for America.

There are countless forces destroying the family which are very vocal and we are the only nation in the world who claims the right to ‘“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”’ just because we are American citizens.” Steve spoke about the experience of President Reagan establishing the Vatican as a country so that he could appoint an ambassador to carry correspondence to the Polish Pope John Paul II. President Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the Pope conspired to bring down the Soviet Union and communism as we knew it. In that part of the world it was the rise of a new freedom.

The world now is in a very precarious condition and is unstable. In the Cold War, we knew our enemy. Today the enemy is camouflaged. He talked about many of our enemies and things that we should be concerned about like nuclear weaponry, consumer spending and indebtedness, rogue terror, epidemics such as Bird Flu virus, another depression He stated that the sole duty of the Federal Government is to provide for public defense not to provide for every need of every person. He mentioned that he just sent a book to press for printing titled: “Ten Dangers Facing America.

Steve suggested that we…

• Learn to take care of our own and stop depending on the government to support us in everything
• Stop being a culture of complacency – take action
• Begin at home to get out of debt – “worry about what really matters, not what our homes look like”
• Demand accountability from public officials
• Be anxiously engaged in correct principles with issues relating to family and values
• Know who we are and what we stand for
• Be “always faithful”… Semper Fi - Marine motto