Louisiana's cry for help

I'm on vacation in Europe now and not writing any blog entries for a few weeks, but I am checking email once in a while. This came through an evolutionists mailing list, calling for help in Louisiana to fight the anti-evolution legislature. It's reached emergency status, and I post it here:


From: "Barbara Forrest"
Date: June 18, 2008 11:08:42 AM PDT
Subject: Help needed immediately for Louisiana

You all no doubt know what is happening down here. We have the point
at which the only possible measure we have left is to raise an
outcry from around the country that Gov. Jindal has to hear. He
won't respond, but we have to at least make some noise. What is
happening in Louisiana has national implications, much to the
delight of the Discovery Institute.

SB 733, the LA Science Education Act, has passed both houses of the
legislature and the governor has indicated that he intends to sign
it. But we don't have to be quiet about this. There is something
that you and everyone else you know who wants to help can do:
The LA Coalition for Science has posted a press release and an open
letter to Jindal asking him to veto the bill. http://lasciencecoalition.org
.

It is time for a groundswell of contacts to Jindal, and *this must
be done immediately* since we don't know when he will sign the
bill. The vote in the legislature is veto-proof, so any request for
Jindal to veto the bill *must stress that the governor can make this
veto stick if he wants it to stick*. Please contact everyone you
know and ask them to contact the governor's office and ask him to
veto the bill. If you have a blog, blog this. If you have friendly
contacts in your address book, please ask them to also contact the
governor's office.

The contact information is at the LCFS link above. We want people
all over the country to do this, as many as possible. Here are the
talking points:

Point 1: The Louisiana law, SB 733, the LA Science Education Act,
has national implications. So far, this legislation has failed in
every other state where it was proposed, except in Michigan, where
it remains in committee. By passing SB 733, Louisiana has set a
dangerous precedent that will benefit the Discovery Institute by
helping them to advance their strategy to get intelligent design
creationism into public schools. Louisiana is only the beginning.
Other states will now be encouraged to pass such legislation, and
the Discovery Institute has already said that they will continue
their push to get such legislation passed.

Point 2: Since Gov. Jindal's support for teaching ID clearly helped
to get this bill passed in the first place, his decision to veto it
will stick if he lets the legislature know that he wants it to stick.

Point 3: Simply allowing the bill to become law without his
signature does not absolve the governor of the responsibility for
protecting the public school science classes of Louisiana. He must
veto the bill to show that he is serious about improving Louisiana
by improving education. Anything less than a veto means that the
governor is giving a green light to creationists to undermine the
education of Louisianachildren.

I have given you the talking points here. You can pull additional
ones from the LCFS press release and our online letter.

Now let's get them out! Contact the governor. Then contact your
friends, and ask them to contract the governor and to ask all of
their friends to do the same. We need to create a huge network of e-
mails asking people to do this. Where they live does not matter at
this point. What is happening in Louisiana has implications for
everyone in the nation.

Barbara