OK, folks, after all the articles and discussions and laughter, we are down to where the law finally catches up with the Aryan Invaders.
The CAPEEM lawsuit is into the Deposition stage, where the Experts have to try to refrain from lying for a few minutes, on pain of perjury charges. From what we hear, the heat is on their musharrafs, because, well, we all know the "because" - there is clear evidence that some of the Board bigots conspired with the East Coast guns-for-hire, and their West Coast cronies, to deny rights to the American citizens who were demanding equal treatment for their kids.
However, to paraphrase Leon Uris from "Exodus",
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ONLY THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN RUNS ON TRUTH
ALL THE KINGDOMS (AND COURTROOMS) OF EARTH RUN ON $$$<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Time for a focused campaign to build up enough $$$ so that the people who are fighting for all of us, don't go without the needed resources.
Consequence of being forced to cut corners would be that some of the guilty may get off without giving sworn depositions, because the "expenses" that they demand cannot be paid.
This is not about sending your $0.02 (though of course, please do that too as possible). This is about planning and execution.
Do some hard thinking, folks, and build up
a) A LIST of donors (or time, money, everything) so that the NUMBER of supporters can be seen to be as large as it is. This is needed to convince those who need to be convinced.
b) A list of people to appproach.
and then let's go do it - get the big $$.
I assume that this effort will create a fund that goes on well beyond this case, and becomes a resource that deters nonsense of the sort that Witzel , Courtright, the bigots who had to be arrested in the Senate, and all their bigot cohorts have been pulling.
For starters please discuss the case in the larger Indian community and start drumming support. Many people outside the forum don't know anything about this issue and how it affects the future of their children. Need to explain why they should support this effort?
Each member please contact at least ten different people and explain the issues, seek support-monetary and otherwise, and plans- short term support the CAPEEM lawsuit, long term create an organization that will seek to defend the civil rights of Indians and Hindus.
Can anyone post a website which has all the background in it? I will circulate it to my Hare Krishna group and to many other Indians I know. People in my HK group know about Calif textbook saga, but not in detail..
We are reaching out to update you on the progress of our lawsuit and to appeal for funds required to take our effort to its logical conclusion. The Establishment Clause lawsuit challenges the disparate treatment of Hinduism and questions the Constitutionality of the depiction of biblical events as historical facts in the sixth grade textbooks.
CAPEEM has subpoenaed several parties including Michael Witzel, James Heitzman, Stanley Wolpert, Jonathon Kenoyer, Charles Munger, Hotmail (the fictitious Arun Vajpayee had used a hotmail email id), Oxford University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Dalit Freedom Network, and Dalit Solidarity Forum. The documents obtained so far demonstrate the discriminatory and disparate treatment of Hindus, back-channel communication and decision making by the CDE/SBE officials and Michael Witzel. The process has also exposed Michael Witzel's coordination with evangelical organizations such as the Dalit Freedom Network.
The counsels for both parties (CAPEEM and CDE/SBE) have obtained a 90-day hold on the discovery process to explore the possibility of a settlement. This will also give CAPEEM time to raise the much needed funds. Upon continuation of the process in November, CAPEEM plans to depose Michael Witzel, James Heitzman, Stanley Wolpert, Charles Munger, and the staff members of the SBE and the CDE.
We had initially estimated a budget of $125,000 - $150,000 for this lawsuit including the appeals process. We have raised $31,000 which has funded the lawsuit to date. We need to raise an additional $40,000 in order to successfully complete the discovery process and another $40,000 to take the trial to completion.
Many religions have well funded groups who engage in lobbying, advocacy, and litigation. We have to put in serious resources on this front. Your contributions to CAPEEM will be a step in the right direction.
To make your donation, please write a check in favor of CAPEEM and mail it to
CAPEEM
PO Box 280442
Northridge, CA 91328.
Alternatively you can donate online by visiting http://www.capeem.org and following the link to make a donation.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to convey to you the struggle that we all face in getting fair representation of our heritage, faith and culture. What the textbooks teach children today about India and Hinduism is still dominated by âhistoryâ written by the colonial rulers of India over half a century ago. The specification for middle school textbooks, derived from the fundamental rights specified in the Constitution of the U.S.A., is very simple:
âTextbooks should instill pride in every child in his or her heritageâ.
While âhistorical accuracyâ is important, it is far more important that no child should be made to feel inferior. No religion or culture should be demeaned or denigrated.
In 2005, California tried to improve the texts, giving a voice to all communities. Indian-Americans took this opportunity, like many other citizen groups, and carefully developed many edits, which were approved for adoption by the review panels. At the last minute, some people on the CA State Board of Education, whose job was to ensure fairness for all, conspired with certain entities hostile to Hinduism, to deny the rights of Hindu Americans to remove denigrating and false references to our culture. They brought in a hostile anti-Hindu group including Communists, Pakistani-ISI-supported propagandists, and fundamentalist proselytizers led by an East Coast Aryan supremacist who runs a hate forum against Hindus, and placed such entities above the duly appointed authorities, to railroad the process.
A brave group of parents took the powerful establishment to Federal Court for restoration of our civil rights. The defendants predictably tried to get the case dismissed, claiming that they represented the State (and hence were above the law?) The Court ruled that they could be held liable for their actions. The defendants then fought tooth and nail to avoid producing the records of email and other conspiracies, as ordered by the Court. Apparently the Court prevailed, and now it is time to get their Depositions.  Here is an update: <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
( I have removed some of the dated stuff from there, so this should serve as a current intro. Add the Arvind Kumar newsletter):
Read what our kids are going to be taught. All because the ones deciging the curriculum can get away with it, since it is so cool nowadays to bash anything Hindu.
Please circulate this to as many people as you can..
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/04/aclu....y.ap/index.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AP) -- Newly released documents regarding crimes ...
The documents, released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated examples of ...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Point being, why can't CAPEEM release a few thousand pages of evidence?
