Thursday, February 17, 2005

An Open Letter To:
Los Angeles County Pastor

Dear Los Angeles County Pastor:

As you might already be aware of, the ACLU threatened to bring a lawsuit in May 2004 against Los Angeles County if they did not change the seal and remove the little cross from it. A petition drive has been started to keep the seal the way it was and to keep the cross.

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Robert Colaco and I serve as the Volunteer National Chairman and Founder of Citizens For A Better America® which I founded on October 15, 1992, please see footnote(s), (01) below for links to our websites for additional information.

We at Citizens For A Better America® are attempting to call all of the about 6,000 plus churches in Los Angeles County. We may or may not have called you yet.

First of all, please allow me to thank you for your interest in keeping the little cross in the Los Angeles County seal.

Our goal in calling Pastors is to ask them to encourage their congregations in signing the Petition to Keep the little cross in the Los Angeles County seal and to keep the Los Angeles County seal like it has been since 1957. Please look at (02).

The vote was 3 to 2 in favor of giving into the demands of the ACLU. Fortunately, the Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and the Fourth District Supervisor Don Knabe both voted to keep the seal unchanged. Unfortunately, they were part of a 2 to 3 minority.

The majority which included First District Supervisor Gloria Molina, Second District Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and Third District Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky all voted to cave into the demands of the ACLU. And when over 3,000 constitutes turned up at their next meeting to protest this decision, they were unapologetic about their decision.(03).

On June 15, 2004, I personally had gone to Hall of Administration in Downtown Los Angeles to ask the Supervisors, in the majority, to allow the voters of Los Angeles County to vote on the issue. I was saddened and disappointed that they did not want to give the voters of Los Angeles the opportunity to vote on the issue (04). They voted against a resolution that Supervisor Antonovich introduced to allow Los Angeles County voters to vote on the issue . The majority made up of Democrats did not want Democratic values and ideals to be exercised by Los Angeles County voters it seems. They denied the citizens of Los Angeles County at chance to decide in an up or down vote on the issue.

Many folks ask me who elects these supervisors. It is the voters of Los Angeles County. You can check which Supervisorial District your church or its members are in by either map, zip code or city/community name, if you do not already know. (05)

In polls, about ninety percent of Los Angeles County residents support keeping the seal the way it has been since 1957 and not to cave into the demands of the ACLU.

We are asking Los Angeles County voters to sign the Petition (06)to reverse the action of the Majority on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. That will occur if our effort collects 341,212 valid signatures from registered voters by March 1, 2005.

In addition to the petition we are also asking Los Angeles County voters to sign our form to publicly endorse Keeping the Cross in the seal (07). This is so that we can use their Name (and Only their name) as having publicly endorsed the petition drive on our website as well as on our other documents.

The gentleman that began the petition drive stated the following on his website on February 9, 2005: "With time running out, major signature gathering events are planned throughout the County of Los Angeles. An estimated 160,000 signatures have been gathered to date, with 250,000 still needed. Updated information and ongoing events will be listed on the website: www.ourfirstamendment.org." (08).

I believe in openness and accountability and I have shared these things from the heart to encourage you to do all you can to encourage your congregation to sign the petition as well as signing our form to publicly endorse Keeping the Cross in the Los Angeles County Seal, so that we can use their Name Only as having endorsed it. (07).

The last Sunday that signatures can be obtained is February 27, 2005. I am also asking you to encourage your members to do all they can to obtain as many signatures from their friends, relatives, co-workers as possible. This is going to be right down to the wire so everyones help is needed.

We did create a website specifically for this issue. For more information please click on our website (09). We have worked to make this website a real resource of everything that might be needed for those Pastors considering asking their congregations to sign this petition.

Again, I believe that with your efforts, we can be successful. I would like to thank you in advance for your sacrificial help in this matter. We must not fail in this great effort.

May God Bless You and May God Bless Los Angeles County.

Sincerely,
Robert Colaco
Volunteer National Chairman, Founder
Citizens For A Better America®
Keep The Cross Campaign

Footnotes:

(01). Citizens For A Better America® - Who We Are!

(02). Background - What's this all about?

(03). TR - Tuesday, 06/08/2004 Transcript of Los Angeles County Board Meeting.

This was a meeting with a huge attendance there to protest the changing of the seal. This PDF file is 224 pages of transcript. Recommended searches are: 64 - c (the agenda item), and seal or start reading at page 45 line 19.

(04). TR - Tuesday, 06/15/2004 Transcript of Los Angeles County Board Meeting.

This was the meeting that Robert Colaco spoke at (His name is misspelled in the transcript as Robert Colloso). This PDF file is 150 pages of transcript. The discussion on the seal starts at page 55 line 18 Roberts discussion starts on page 111 line 23.

(05). District Information - Maps, Cities and Zipcodes

(06). Download the Petition.

(07). Joined Citizens For A Better America ® in Publicly Endorsing Keeping the Cross in the Seal.

(08). http://www.ourfirstamendment.org/PrintArticle21.htm

(09). KeepTheCross.com