Mission Viejo Buzz - 03/23/13

The Buzz

Save the date: the Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will hold a General Meeting on Mon., Apr. 8, at the Norm Murray Community Center. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. Featured speaker will be Jeff Ferguson, Senior Deputy District Attorney for Orange County. His topic will be “How Judges Can Stop Sharia in America.” The address of the Community Center is 24932 Veterans Way in Mission Viejo.

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Saddleback College students have formed a Christian Bible Study Club. The club will meet in the Quad on Tues., Mar. 26, 11:00 a.m. for Christian fellowship and Bible studies. For more information, call (831) 419-2090 or go to http://www.saddleback.edu/news/campus-events/christian-students-club-bible-study. Also at Saddleback College this week, the Department of Theatre Arts will present “The Women of Lockerbie,” opening Fri., Mar. 29, 8:00 p.m., and running through Apr. 7.

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Mission Viejo City Manager Dennis Wilberg had another slow week. His newsletter, “The Week That Was,” filled only half of one page. One paragraph was about a preparedness program for senior citizens, and the other blurb was about a library program for schools. Wilberg’s write-up about the library program includes a photo of the “audience” – seven people and some empty chairs. Maybe by his description of a great response he means they were cheering loudly. Wilberg’s predecessor, ex-city manager Dan Joseph, used to say he needed only three of the five council votes to keep his job. Wilberg has four cheerleaders on the council, which sheds light on his accomplishments for the week ending Mar. 22 – another “Week That Wasn’t.”

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Tea Party Patriot Dan writes, “Where is the Congressional Oversight Committee when it comes to the exorbitant spending sprees of Biden and Obama, and where are the Benghazi survivors? I am asking everyone to call Congress and demand an investigation and let Congress know we are sick of paying them to do nothing. … Biden is spending $585,000 to stay one night in a hotel and we the taxpayers have to sell our souls to China to pay for it. Now we are giving Jordan $200 million while they burn our flag. Congress can subpoena witnesses, or force them to testify under oath before its committees, yet they do nothing. Why are we putting up with this?”

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Last week, city watchdog Larry Gilbert encouraged people to attend the Mar. 19 Lake Forest Council meeting to express support for the proposal of allowing an invocation at the beginning of council meetings. On Mar. 19, the proposal was approved with a 4-1 vote. Larry wrote: “As Mission Viejo celebrates our 25th anniversary on March 31st there is one area of our city council meetings where we have been on the same page since 1988. I refer to the opening of every city council meeting with a pledge to our flag and an invocation. In fact with Irvine's recent vote to add an invocation with their council meetings there are now 25 of our 34 cities each following this format. Source: OC Register.

“We all have heard that the U.S. Senate opens their sessions with a prayer by their chaplain. Since Sept 1774 we have opened congressional sessions with an invocation. Every year our church issues a listing of elected officials from local city council and state representatives to the president so that we can be praying for them by name as they direct public policy that impacts all of our lives.

“So we return from a vacation only to read that a Mission Viejo resident named Karla Westphal, reported as co-president of the OC Chapter, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, showing up at a Lake Forest city council meeting to express her opposition to their adding an invocation to their meetings.

“Strange. I've been attending Mission Viejo city council meeting for the past 20-25 years and I do not recall ever seeing or hearing from this attention-grabbing activist expressing any opposition to the invocation in the city where the Register reports as her residence.

“As it is, we are hearing of efforts to remove "in God we trust" from our currency. There are times when we have to let this small minority know that adding a brief invocation is not a separation of church and state issue as alleged. It is not a stealth effort to promote anyone to organized religions be it the Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism or the Sikh faith.

“Every elected official should be in prayer as they make decisions that will impact future generations after they leave office.”