Food drive, craft show, grief workshops and more
Posted: Thursday, November 27, 2008 6:00 pm
Museums team up to help the hungry
The Hastings Museum and Stuhr Museum are engaging in a little friendly competition to make the holidays brighter for those going without this season.
The two museums are holding a joint food drive, “Sharing Through the Season,” which runs through Dec. 31. Both museums are asking for food and donations to help food pantries in Grand Island and Hastings. Museum organizers say they hope the challenge will motivate others to help out. The museums are seeking donations of canned and boxed foods.
Benedict Center hosts two- week craft show.
Under the motto, Christmas on the Hill, the St. Benedict Center will host a two-week Christmas craft show.
The St. Benedict Center is four miles north of Schuyler on Nebraska 15. The show runs Sunday through Dec. 14. Hours are 2 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free.
In addition to crafts and gifts, the center will display Nativity scenes from around the world.
Grief and the holidays workshops offered
Getting through the holidays can be difficult if you have lost a loved one.
Licensed mental health therapists Leslie Crawford Pieper and Dee Dee Clinton will present four free “Grief and Surviving the Holidays” programs in December:
An educational program on grief and coping strategies will be held at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 6, at Roper and Sons Mortuary, 4300 O St..
On Wednesdays, Dec. 3, 10 and 17, people are invited to gather in a relaxed group setting to learn about the grief process and share personal stories. The group meets from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2110 Sheridan Blvd.
To register for any of the programs call Orr Psychotherapy Resources at 484-0595.
Arizona group to design ‘choose life’ license plates
Now that an anti-abortion group has won a long legal fight, an Arizona commission is being ordered to meet by Jan. 23 and approve a special “choose life” license plate.
U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt set the deadline in an order that also requires the state to take all necessary steps for “timely production and issuance” of the new plate.
The judgment comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in October left in place a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the Arizona Life Coalition.
The 9th Circuit said the state commission on license plates violated the group’s constitutional right to free speech by turning down its application.
The plate envisioned by supporters would have drawings of the faces of two smiling children in an overall design based on Arizona’s regular plate. The “choose life” slogan would appear twice.
While the case has been portrayed as being centered on the abortion issue, members of the Arizona Life Coalition have said they are speaking of adoption and other concerns, as well.
Other states offering “Choose Life” plates include South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
‘No religion’ billboard taken down after complaints
Complaints have led to the removal of an atheist group’s “Imagine No Religion” billboard in the San Bernardino County city of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
The General Outdoor sign company took down the Freedom From Religion Foundation billboard after the city said it received about 90 complaints and asked whether there was a way to remove it.
The Madison, Wis.-based foundation, which advocates separation of church and state, has billboards in eight states that include such messages as “Reasons Greetings” and “Beware of Dogma.”
The foundation’s co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said the billboard is meant to encourage a debate about religion by evoking lyrics from a John Lennon song.
“The city has no business suggesting our billboard be censored,” Gaylor said. “They’re not allowed to interfere over religious controversy.”
The city’s actions are “dangerously close” to censorship and a violation of the First Amendment, said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition.
“A city government has no business trying to dictate or influence the content of an advertising image, particularly one that’s political and controversial as this is simply because some people don’t like it and complained about it,” Scheer said.
The city’s redevelopment director, Linda Daniels, said the city did not demand General Outdoor take down the sign, “but they respected the concerns of residents.”
Mormon population in Utah shrinks as state economy diversifies
The Mormon population of Utah continues to get smaller.
An Associated Press analysis of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership records used by state planning officials to develop population estimates shows that Mormons now make up 60.4 percent of the state’s population. That’s down from 60.7 percent last year.
The percentage has declined every year for nearly two decades and if the trend continues Mormons will make up less than half of Utah’s population by 2030.
“The LDS population will still increase, but as a share of the total, that should continue to decline over time,” said University of Utah demographer Pam Perlich. “What would cause that to reverse would be an economic collapse and the same people who moved here for jobs leave for jobs. … But there’s a slim-to-none chance that would ever happen.”
In Salt Lake County, the state’s most populous county and home to church headquarters, Mormons are barely holding onto their majority, making up 50.6 percent of the population.
In recent years, Utah has experienced a demographic shift as its economy thrived and increasing numbers of workers flocked to the state from other parts of the country and world.
“We’re just going to bring a much more diverse population here,” Perlich said. “People are not moving here for family reunions or culture alone. They’re coming here for work.”