Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build good will and peace in the world.

"Doing good in the World is more than a motto.  It is our goal, our mission, and our reminder.  It expresses in the clearest terms why we have a Foundation, and it challenges us to reach as far as we can to do the most good possible with everything we have.  Our Foundation exisits to support the good that we can do through Rotary.  It expands our reach, increases our strength, and makes our service more powerful and more effective.  Because of our Foundation we can, very simple, do more of our Rotary work."

2004-2005

President Glenn Estess Sr. 

President, Maura Donnelly, opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance followed with a prayer by Tricia Blasdel.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please bring guests to our meeting. We need one new member to meet Maura's membership goal before her term as president is over.

Blake Schrumpf's application was approved by the Board and he was welcomed as our newest member.

Guests: Diana Drake (Tom Hill), Darren Warden (Phil Hardas)

Make-ups: None.

Birthdays: None.

Anniversaries: Roland Harris (6/17) and Mark Korte (6/17)

Club Anniversaries: Mark Korte (10 years)

Women's Golf Shirts - Anyone interested in purchasing a shirt, please see Holli.

Please let these people know that they were missed: Terry Bell, David Daiber, Len Daiber, Bob Engelmann, Dan Fieker, Mike Gould, Bret Gruender, Luke Harris, Robert Hellige, Ray Hereford, Ron Hesson, Lisa Hunsche, Don Johannes, George Jones, Jack Klaus, Kelly Korte, Terry Leitschuh, Glenn Meffert, Henry Metzger, Greg Miranda, Robert Nagel, David Peters, Mark Reaka, Brad Rench, Adrian Rogier, Bill Schaefer, Eric Schmidt, Ron Schneider, Randy Schorfheide, Art Schutz, Peggy Sebastian, Michael Sutton and Jennifer Whitten.

Reminder that 2011-2012 we will be tracking service hours again to see Rotarian's collective IMPACT.  This year's goal is 7500 hours, to date there are 2408 hours recorded. 

The float is at Mark's shed and ready to be worked on for the parade. We need to find a design and then put together a committee to work on the float. If you are interested, see Mark.

Members can go to the website and log your hours or email them to him directly: swconstruct@agtelco.com

There was $567 in the 50/50 with 37 cards left in the deck. The four of clubs was pulled.

Phil fined himself for giving his guest a hard time. He fined Maura Donnelly for not having a pool party in her new pool. He fined Tom Wehrle for not saying hello when he came into the meeting. And he fined everyone who has not yet sold a car raffle ticket.

Happy Bucks: None.

PROGRAM: Tad Armstrong, author of "It's OK to Say God"

Mr. Armstrong is the author of the book "It's OK To Say God." He was inspired to write the book after receiving an email story about a couple that was outraged after visiting a memorial in Washington D.C. and seeing that the word God had been left out of a quote by FDR. The email said, "I guess that's because we aren't suppose to say God." Mr. Armstrong says it was this rumor that we aren't suppose to say God that prompted him to write about the freedom of religion granted by the Constitution.

Mr. Armstrong discusses the Constitution and the clause that is 16 words long and affords us the freedom of religion. He said that this Constitutional right is completely overlooked by many people. The state of Missouri, he said, actually has an item on the ballot to add 350+ words to confirm what the Constitution already says about freedom of religion. It's this ignorance of our laws that keeps him traveling and speaking on the matter.

Pondering what freedom means, Mr. Armstrong looked up the definition of the word. He found many definitions, none of which defined what freedom IS, but what it isn't. He says freedom is hard to define but you know when you don't have it.

Mr. Armstrong described two cases that went to the Supreme Court on the matter of freedom of religion. The first case in 1940 was Minersville School District v. Gobitis. The family, who were Jehovah's Witnesses, had two children who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The children were expelled from the school for refusing to say the Pledge. The case went to the Supreme Court where a 8-1 ruling sided with the school district.

The second case came just three years later in 1943 with West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette. The details of the case were almost exactly the same as Minersville School District v. Gobitis. Only this time the court ruled in favor of freedom of religion and overturned the prior ruling.

In 1954, the phrase "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2000 it was challenged by a well-known atheist, Michael Newdow, who wanted the words removed. The courts agreed that it was an establishment of religion by the government and ruled in Newdow's favor. The case was heard in the Supreme Court and the verdict was overturned on a technicality - Newdow didn't have any skin in the game because he didn't have custody of the child who was having to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day.

Since then, there have been 8 challenges to have "Under God" removed from the Pledge of Alleginance. Nobody has been successful and the Supreme Court hasn't heard a case since the Newdow case.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS -  Jennifer Whitten