Published: October 04, 2008 10:37 pm            

STEPHANIE SALTER: Tidying up: Items, fragments, corrections and other business

TERRE HAUTE — Instead of one subject, I have five today. Two involve the governor of Alaska. Let’s start with the other three.

Item 1: Paul Newman.

Unlike many leading men who appeal only to a narrow age group, Paul Newman transcended generations. Women his own age fantasized about him, as did their daughters and granddaughters.

It wasn’t just because he was one of the most gorgeous human beings born in modern times. As numerous obituaries and tributes have attested this past week, much of Newman’s popularity occurred in spite of his beauty. He was a fine actor who also was a man of substance.

I saw Newman in person only once, in 1968 when he campaigned at Purdue for Eugene McCarthy. I’d almost skipped his rally because I was afraid to discover that the man whose poster was affixed to many dorm room ceilings — first thing you saw when you woke up each day — was only 5-feet-2 or something.

Newman wasn’t little. He was an average-size guy with an over-size mind and soul. I remember realizing after his speech that his seriousness and commitment to McCarthy had managed to make me forget the movie star stuff.

That seriousness, and depth, I believe, accounted for Newman’s longevity and continued influence. So did his consistency and philanthropy. He was a proud liberal, and he put his money where his politics and social views were, right up to the end.

One other thing: He was the safest object of lust on the screen because he so obviously had found the love of his life in Joanne Woodward. As their years together turned into decades, that fact just made him even more admirable — and attractive.

Item 2: Corrections no one asked for but I want to make.

(a) Contrary to what I wrote in a column a few weeks ago, Jack Daniels bourbon is not distilled in Kentucky, it’s Tennessee.

(b) If the government gave every U.S. man, woman and child $1 million each, the tab would be in the many trillions, not cheaper than the $700-billion Wall Street bailout. (That one appeared only in the print version of the Tribune-Star. I was awakened to mathematical reality in time to fix the error in cyberspace.)

Item 3: Uppity right-wing pastors.

The U.S tax system is the friendliest on Earth to religious organizations. People of any faith can deduct their contributions to any church, temple, synagogue, mosque or storefront that holds 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service.

For their part, the churches, temples, etc., get to enjoy the benefits of this federal charitable cheerleading, and they escape paying trainloads of property taxes — no matter how big their religious empires grow.

What are they asked for in return? To refrain from endorsing or condemning specific candidates from the pulpit. Big deal.

Ah, but it is a big deal to nearly three dozen U.S. pastors whose delusions of grandeur and of perpetual persecution have robbed them of good sense. Calling themselves the Alliance Defense Fund, at least 33 of them have pledged to defy the IRS ban on electioneering from the pulpit. They claim the prohibition — adopted during the early Eisenhower era — violates their constitutional right to tell their congregations how to vote.

One of these ingrates preaches in Crown Point at the Living Stones Church. A couple of Sundays ago, in his sermon, the Rev. Ron Johnson Jr., told a gathered throng that a vote for Barack Obama was tantamount to “severe moral schizophrenia.”

Asked by a Washington Post reporter why he could not abide by the half-century-old IRS rule, Johnson Jr. said he wasn’t certain his flock could figure out on its own the right way — God’s way — to vote.

The IRS has said it is “monitoring” this situation. Every religious American who understands that the separation of church and state is a national treasure should monitor the situation, as well.

If the Alliance Defense Fund preachers don’t get hauled into court for IRS violations and lose their tax exempt status, we should protest en masse, signing petitions during our own services. There is no law against taking sides on issues in our houses of worship, just in choosing up sides on people.

Items 4 and 5: Sarah Palin and Planned Parenthood.

Because of their opposing stands on safe, legal abortion, Planned Parenthood and Palin are squared off against one another. On my scoresheet, the family planning and health organization is 1-for-2 on Palintology.

The loss: A recent TV ad paid for by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (a PAC) perpetuates a widespread but unprovable charge against Palin in her Wasilla mayoral days.

The ad says that “under Mayor Sarah Palin,” rape victims were charged for forensic kits used to collect police evidence. Technically, that’s true, but as several non-partisan fact-checking groups have determined, there is no record anywhere that Palin supported this policy beyond it being part of the entire Wasilla budget that she approved. Everything else is speculation.

Palin and her running mate, John McCain, are ferociously anti-choice. There’s plenty of real grist for the abortion rights mill without anyone needing to stretch a nonverifiable “maybe” into probable cause for outrage.

Whichever side uses them, tactics like those demean a cause.

The win: No one is certain who started it (it wasn’t Planned Parenthood), but an e-mail campaign has morphed into a huge fundraising source for the organization.

Now in several versions, the e-mail suggests pro-abortion rights supporters donate to Planned Parenthood in Palin’s name and have the thank-you card sent to McCain’s national headquarters.

The anti-abortion Web site, lifenews.com, characterizes the ploy as “the latest attack on the Alaska governor over her pro-life views.”

An “attack”?

The e-mail donation is a clear and clever way to say, “I’m pro-choice, I vote, and I want McCain and Palin to know that.” It’s about as much of an attack on Palin as Joe Biden’s handshake was at the start of Thursday night’s debate.

If you are a supporter of safe, legal abortion — and of access to contraceptives and reproductive health services — contact Planned Parenthood Federation of America by e-mail or phone to make an “honorary or memorial” donation in Palin’s name. The mailing address for the thank-you note is: McCain for President, 1235 S. Clark St., 1st Floor, Arlington, VA. 22202.

Stephanie Salter can be reached at 9812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.

        

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