Minnesota Atheists Newsletter Report On Delasalle
The Nov/Dec 2005 edition of the "Minnesota Atheist" newsletter had a short article about the Minnesota Atheists' involvement in the DeLaSalle situation.
You can download the newsletter in Adobe Acrobat PDF format at: http://www.mnatheists.org/outreach/images/nov_dec05.pdf
Here is the article:
Lobbying Report
DeLaSalle High School, a Catho- lic high school on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis, wishes to build (at its own expense) a new football/soccer stadium next to the school, on its own land and land provided by the city. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) would continue to own the city's share of the land. A recipro- cal-use agreement would allow the school and city to share the use of the facility.
Minnesota Atheists has been con- cerned with possible violations of state- church separation. After consult- ing with Chuck Samuelson and Teresa Nelson of the ACLU of Minnesota, and with Brian Rice, attorney for the MPRB, they agreed with our following two concerns:
1) That although one-stop sched- uling of the stadium through DeLaSalle might be convenient, public (non- DeLaSalle) activities must be sched- uled through the MPRB, just as they would be for any other city park.
2) That activities that take place under "city time" be subject to the same rules and accessibility as any other city park. In other words, DeLa- Salle would not have the ability to dis- criminate as to the content of public activities. As a representative from DeLaSalle agreed, a Gay Pride football game could occur during "city time."
These stipulations were presented at a MPRB meeting on Nov. 2 by Au- gust Berkshire. There seemed to be no disagreement among the board mem- bers. In fact, board commissioner John Erwin then introduced an amendment stating that the stadium agreement must abide by the city of Minneapolis' non-discrimination policy. It passed unanimously on a voice vote.
The project did not receive a final endorsement from the MPRB. An En- vironmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) must be performed as the next stage in the process. Minnesota Athe- ists will continue to monitor the situa- tion.
The group's website is http://www. mnatheists.org.