Judicial Services has a page that gives a good overview of the conflict between UGA/Jaclyn Steele and former head cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell. Go to their page and read it. Then come back here to get the fine details.
Preface. I was struck just now (14 January 2005) by the thought that Matt and Marilou Braswell might be made somewhat uncomfortable with my support for their cause, inasmuch as they probably don't wish to be associated with my racial opinions or with my political ideology. So I will state, however lately, that the Braswells and I don't know each other. We are not friends, and I know about them only from my investigations into the merits (or lack thereof) of Jaclyn Steele's discrimination complaint and subsequent related actions by UGA.
My contact with the Braswells consists entirely of one email from myself to each of them, and one email from each of them to me, in which I gave them a summary of my investigation and received brief acknowledgement that my estimate of the situation with regard to Jaclyn Steele and the UGA was essentially correct. This page is the result of an evaluation of many sources, one of which was Matt Braswell's Help Marilou website.
I don't support the Braswells for any reason other than that I believe that they are in the right and have been slandered and libeled repeatedly by Jaclyn Steele, by the ADL, and by the University of Georgia, and because the major press have given unwarranted credence to false charges against Marilou Braswell made by Jaclyn Steele, the ADL, and UGA, and because of the thousand sniggering sources of vituperation that have appeared on the Internet to heap villainy on the reputation of a good woman.
Athens, Georgia, is home to the University of Georgia and its sports teams. In the summer of 2004, a dispute between a cheerleader (Jaclyn Steele) and a coach (Marilou Braswell) arose over whether the cheerleader had been fairly treated.
Jaclyn Steele had cheered UGA teams for three years. During her first year, she led cheers in the preferred squad that performs at men's football games. In her second year, she occupied a place on the somewhat less favored squad that leads cheers for the men's basketball team. In her third year as a UGA cheerleader, Steele was placed on the "lowest" squad, namely the one that cheers at women's basketball games.
I'm not sure where these preference rankings come from, but they are generally recognized among the cheerleaders at UGA.
Whether a prospective cheerleader is eligible for a position on a cheerleading squad, and, if so, to which squad she will be assigned, is settled by competitive demonstrations of ability called "tryouts." The scores from the tryouts showed that there were at least six other girls more capable than Steele in leading cheers, and that is why Steele was not again assigned to the football cheerleading squad after her first year.
In fact, Jaclyn Steele only made the football squad her first year because she was the partner of a male cheerleader who had tied for 7th place with another man, whose female partner had tied for 6th place with another woman. Normally, a cheer squad has six women cheerleaders and six men as stunt partners. But that year there were eight such couples, and Jaclyn was included only as the result of a chain of ties on which her partner (not herself) was the last to be included by his own merit. Miss Steele was very, very lucky to have made the football team that year.
After Jaclyn Steele failed placement on the football squad during her second year of tryouts, being placed instead on the men's basketball cheer squad, she accused Coach Braswell of manipulating the tryout scores with a religious bias. (Coach Braswell was Jaclyn's highest scorer during these tryouts. The other judges scored her lower than the coach did.) Steele said that she lost points because she is Jewish and not Christian, implying that she would have made the top squad if it had not been for bigotry. It isn't clear how much of this story she made up herself and how much of it was made up for her after she made contact with the ADL.
During Jaclyn Steele's third year of tryouts, Coach Braswell was forbidden to participate in scoring her, instead letting the average of the other judges substitute for her score. As the result, Jaclyn was again demoted...to the women's basketball squad. Miss Steele complained because Coach Braswell had not scored her tryout performances. Coach Braswell reminded Jaclyn that she had been forbidden to score because of Jaclyn's accusation of religious discrimination the previous year. Because the coach told her this, Jaclyn went to the Athletic Department and filed another complaint for "cruelty."
On whom does the burden of proof fall? Normally it falls on the accuser. But these are not normal times because Jews have acquired the ability to bend rules through politics and to mold public opinion through media influence. The traditional standards and values have been thrown away, and every question has become a rigged game in which Jews have decisive advantages.
What does that mean? It means when a Jew accuses a Christian, the Jew is presumed to be right, even if she isn't. On the other hand, if a Christian accuses a Jew, the Christian is assumed to be an antisemitic "hater" whose accusation must not be taken seriously, and whether it is true is beside the point.
When things are like this, a little whining can take a Jew far. Not only did Steele get an extra year not permitted by the university's rules to other cheerleaders, she also got an easy ride to the most favored squad without having to win placement there in competitive tryouts. The UGA Athletic Department, intimidated by the prospect of a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by the powerful ADL, knuckled under and gave Steele the special consideration she wanted.
The specific reason for which Coach Braswell was fired is that she read to her students the decision by the UGA Athletic Department to give Steele this special consideration. What's wrong with informing students about a decision by university officials that might affect them? Nothing.
Why did she do it? Obviously, the other cheerleaders might wonder why Jaclyn Steele was going to "bump" one of them off the football squad next year, even though it would be Steele's fourth year of cheerleading participation, and everyone else was restricted to only three years. I can see how this might cause confusion among these other cheerleaders, and I don't see why the truth should not be used to explain things to them.
According to the Macon Telegraph, this is what Coach Braswell said:
"On or about June 2003, Jaclyn Steele issued a complaint with the UGA Legal Affairs Department accusing me of religious discrimination against her. It is my position that her accusations are totally without merit. I have retained counsel to investigate the matter and prove my position.
"However, because the allegations were made, the UGA Athletic Department has mandated that Jaclyn Steele be placed, without having to try out, on this squad.
"Because this is an ongoing investigation, I will have no further comment regarding this situation at this time, except to say this. From this point forward, we will act in a manner that is consistent with what is the 'greater good' for this squad. Jaclyn Steele is a member of this team and is to be treated like any other member. I will not tolerate any negative action, discussion or comments regarding Jackie as a result of this situation. We will move on with the business of being the best cheer squad that we can be."
The first two paragraphs in the quote contain statements that are all true and relevant to the interests of the cheerleaders to whom Coach Braswell was speaking.
The third paragraph states that she will have nothing further to say about the situation to the cheerleaders for the time being. (What she had said in the preceding two paragraphs is the entirety of what could have motivated UGA to fire her.) The third paragraph further expresses Coach Braswell's willingness to accept Jaclyn Steele as a full-fledged member of the team and also demands from the other cheerleaders that they, too, accept Jaclyn Steele as a member of the team. Finally, the third paragraph declares Coach Braswell's intention for making the football cheerleading squad "the best cheer squad [it] can be."
In summary, then, there was nothing in Coach Braswell's third paragraph that could have inclined UGA toward firing her. Any such pretext would have to be found in her first and second paragraphs. Is one there?
No. Coach Braswell related to her students only truthful information. She did not tell any lies. The cheerleaders had an interest in the facts that Coach Braswell shared with them because they might otherwise misunderstand or misconstrue the reasons for why Jaclyn Steele was being given extraordinary preference by UGA. For example, the other cheerleaders might believe that UGA gave Jaclyn Steele those special favors because she is a Jewess, when, instead, they gave her those favors to avoid a federal lawsuit by the ADL.
Two weeks later, UGA Athletic Director Frank Crumley sent Coach Braswell termination papers.
Somebody else can do Demon Evans. UGA officials give these reasons for firing Coach Braswell:
1. "Discourteous and disruptive behavior."
Was Marilou Braswell's statement, read to her football cheerleading squad, "discourteous and disruptive"? No. It was factual, descriptive, and relevant. UGA administrators would have us believe that Coach Braswell's message to her students was spiteful, when, on the contrary, it graciously called on the other cheerleaders to accept Jaclyn Steele as worthy of being on the football cheerleading squad (even though she wasn't). Strike 1 against UGA.
2. "Retaliating against students who report what they believe to be discrimination."
This is the usual double standard that we've seen time and again when Jews are involved. It's OK for Jews to try wrecking an innocent gentile's reputation with vicious lies. But it is not acceptable for the accused gentile to discredit those lies by telling the truth. You read that right. You know when a political system has been jewified because Jews are privileged to instigate attacks (given most any bogus pretext for justification), but it is considered wrong for their victims to defend themselves.
Even if you had no reason to favor either Marilou Braswell or Jaclyn Steele, you'd have to assume that it's just as likely that Jaclyn Steele is the one doing the retaliating. That is, you'd have to recognize that it were equally probable that Jaclyn Steele is avenging herself for being fairly "demoted" to less-preferred squads as that her religious discrimination accusation is true.
UGA does not recognize it only because it finds such recognition to be politically inconvenient. In its response to Coach Braswell's dispute, the UGAA identified Coach Braswell's alleged retaliation against Jaclyn Steele as its primary reason for firing the coach. The alleged retaliation consists of Coach Braswell's reading to her football cheer squad the prepared statement quoted above. Since that statement contains nothing retaliatory, UGAA's claim cannot be true. Strike 2 against UGA.
3. "Disclosing private and protected information to unauthorized persons."
The actual text of Coach Braswell's termination letter states:
3. You disclosed information contained in education records protected by the Family Educational and Privacy Rights (FERPA), to unauthorized persons, without the student’s parents’ written consent.
What UGA has done is create a false impression and then use that false impression as a false justification for firing Marilou Braswell. There are certain principles at work here, and from those principles can be derived the following ideas, among others:
You can't copyright truth.
You can't patent logic.
The government can't classify the laws of nature.
(Etcetera.)If a high school kid, speculating about the capabilities of high-performance US aircraft or the resolution of US spy satellites, is smart enough to deduce some of the truth about US military assets, he is free to share his opinions with anybody, as long as he has not confirmed his beliefs with officially protected classified information. You can't copyright truth. You can't classify the laws of nature.
In order for Marilou Braswell to have violated the FERPA rights of Jaclyn Steele, she would have had to have obtained her information from Steele's education records. Coach Braswell has every right to share with others what she knows from non-protected sources or her own experience, even if some of what she says is contained in a protected source. Since the coach had first-hand knowledge of what was going on, it wasn't necessary for her to consult the education records.
(Marilou Braswell probably didn't even know whatever had been recently added to Jaclyn Steele's education records. Without checking those records frequently, any teacher's saying anything about any student might get the teacher into trouble unless a student's right against disclosure is limited to what the person doing the disclosing learned by reading the protected document.)
UGA administrators can't be presumed to be ignorant of the principles involved, so... Strike 3 against UGA.
There's yet more evidence of UGA's duplicity. UGA claims that it warned Braswell to have "no more religious overtones in your program," which, obviously, meant that the coach was not to give her cheerleaders any reason to think that participating in Bible studies was a requirement for getting ahead. Later, after the coach read her statement to her football cheer squad, UGA "creatively interpreted" their prohibition to have meant that Coach Braswell was not to mention any lawsuits involving religious discrimination, and applied this new meaning against Coach Braswell retroactively as part of their justification in firing her.
UGA, evidently, hopes that large quantities of officialese will stand them clear of the injustice of firing Coach Braswell. It hasn't. Strike 4 against UGA.
Apparently, the administrative staff of UGA's Athletic Department has also told certain other lies. According to Rev. Braswell, Ed Tolley (an attorney for UGA) falsely informed Marilou at a November 2003 meeting, at which her presence was required, that the state's attorney general was calling for her to be punished for religious discrimination. The Braswells believe this lie was used as a means of intimidating the cheerleading coach. Rev. Braswell later phoned the attorney general's office and learned that Tolley had not been in contact with them about Steele's accusation. It further appears that Vince Dooley (outgoing White UGA Athletic Director) and Damon Evans (the new Black UGA Athletic Director) were parties in the conspiracy to intimidate Coach Braswell with this lie, since they were present at the meeting before Marilou was allowed to enter the room.
Rev. Braswell also says that, after that meeting, Damon Evans wrote a letter ordering Marilou Braswell not to hold the Bible study sessions (which were held in the Braswell home), forbidding her to use the word "Jesus" in conversation in front of cheerleaders, and informing her that she was on "probation" without identifying any specific wrongdoing for which it was warranted. A copy of that letter can be seen on Reverend Braswell's "Help Marilou" website.
Notice that Damon Evans' letter does not say what the results of the alleged investigation were. Neither does it say which UGA policies Marilou Braswell allegedly violated. (Notice, also, that the half-educated Damon Evans used the word "eliminating" where he obviously meant alienating.)
There was no real investigation of Jaclyn Steele's complaint of religious discrimination by Coach Braswell. The University of Georgia never had a detective trying to sort facts from lies, in order to learn who the guilty party was. What passed for an "investigation" was nothing more than a weighing of political risks, with Marilou Braswell being considered the safest party to make the loser. Why would three (formerly) respectable men perpetrate such a vile deception on an innocent cheerleading coach? The UGA Athletic Department was running scared from the possibility of being sued by Jews with a Jewish federal judge inevitably ruling heavily against them. It would most likely go precisely as it did in the famous Rockwell poem The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens.
But when they went up to the judge,
Imagine their dismay!
A chicken-judge decreed that they
Now had a fine to pay!It was much easier for the university to discipline Coach Braswell than take on the ADL in what might easily have been a pitched legal battle. UGA had put the coach on probation—possibly without telling her why. Coach Braswell did what she thought right by revealing enough information to her squad to let them comprehend the reasons for Jaclyn Steele's (unearned) presence among them. But the coach apparently did not realize that this revelation would embarrass the administrators in the UGA Athletic Department by exposing them as a bunch of venal cowards who had shamefully bent to malicious pressure tactics by the ADL.
In short, then, UGA fired Coach Braswell because she had embarrassed them with the facts.
As Jason Winders, executive editor for Online Athens, said
Of all people mixed up in this mess, I would think Marilou Braswell would understand it's never a good idea to take the boss' name in vain. See, I'm certain she knew God dropped that rule in at No. 3 on his Top 10 list, but maybe she didn't quite understand this particular commandment ranks a bit higher when it comes to answering to the University of Georgia Athletic Department.
Folks, you just don't commit the sin of making the boss look bad. And that's exactly what she did.
That may well be, but when an employee is fired unjustly and under false pretenses, the courts may serve the ends of justice by making the employer regret his actions. Marilou Braswell deserves, in my opinion, to win a lawsuit against UGA, and I hope that the jury awards her both her former job as well as financial restitution.
The media have cooperated with Steele and the ADL in subtle ways. Most egregiously, they've accepted uncritically the idea that there must be some substance to the bigotry allegations. But instead of proving that Coach Braswell reduced Jaclyn Steele's tryout score (with the other judges letting it happen), the media mention certain religious aspects of Braswell's life and permit an illusion of proof to be created through the juxtaposition of text.
Further, nearly every online media article about this case shows two pictures. In one picture, an emotional Coach Braswell is shown, clearly upset and frowning. In the other, a well-groomed Jaclyn Steele is shown smiling for her yearbook photo. Obviously, the Jewish Ms. Steele was shown putting her best foot forward, while the picture of the Christian Marilou Braswell was intended to portray her as having a volatile and unstable personality.
After following more than a dozen news stories and several informed editorials about this case, I've been persuaded that every reference to religion in the case of Marilou Braswell is a distraction of the kind detectives call a "red herring." Steele's scores in her tryouts were lower than the scores of some of her competitors. They won; she lost. And she didn't lose because of a religious bias because there were Christian cheerleaders who placed lower than Steele did.
Let me introduce you to a classic ADL deception. Here it is:
"We believe that there has been a clear pattern of religious discrimination and insensitivity on the part of Coach Braswell against members of UGA cheerleading squads who have refused to participate in Bible study sessions and other Christian activities that were either initiated or endorsed by this coach in her capacity as an employee of the university. We praise Jaclyn Steele for standing up for what is right and for notifying the university of this long-standing problem." (Anti-Defamation League statement.)
The canny ADL began it's statement with the words "We believe that..." Nobody can refute whether something is, or isn't, someone's opinion. Generally, if you say that you believe something, everybody else assumes that you do. The ADL put forward an opinion, but nearly everyone else has taken it as a fact: that a "clear pattern" of religious discrimination by Marilou Braswell exists.
Nonsense. No such pattern exists. Where's the ADL's data? When and how did the ADL conduct it's scientific study into the matter? The allegation would be ridiculous, except that the public has been conditioned (by the Jewish media) into accepting the ADL's maliciously crafted opinions as facts.
What it has come down to is this. If you are a Christian, then not only may you not practice your religion on your hours at work with a state-funded institution, you also may not practice your religion in your own home with persons whom you met at the state-funded institution. If you do, then the first Jewess who becomes displeased over not being assigned to her favorite cheerleading squad can go to the ADL and get you fired from your job at the state-funded institution.
Lest anyone think that all the Jews are liars, here's a statement from a Jew who has told the truth about Marilou Braswell:
"I think it's ridiculous. Coach Braswell has always been very, very nice to me... I don't think it's right for her to lose her job. I think it was more of a personality conflict than anything having to do with religion." (Jacob Volk, Jewish cheerleader for UGA Bulldogs, 2000-2002.)
"I never, not even once, felt that I was shown any less respect because of my religion." (Jacob Volk, Jewish cheerleader for UGA Bulldogs, never attended Coach Braswell's Bible Studies and denies that there was any religious discrimination because of it.)
So, not only were there Christians who didn't make the top cheerleading squad, there was at least one Jew who did make the top cheerleading squad, three years running. Jacob Volk said that he perceived a "personality conflict" between the conflicting parties. Now, what exactly was the "clear pattern of religious discrimination" that the ADL "believes" it has seen?
Remember this lesson, if you remember no other: you can't trust the ADL. Even when their statements aren't exactly lies, they are often still deceptions.
In the narrow, this case involves a malicious accusation brought by a Jewess against a Christian. But I think that something larger may also be going on. Was Jaclyn Steele recruited by the ADL to be a "stalking horse" against Christians in general? Was the objective not so much to get Marilou Braswell fired as to establish a constraint upon the freedom of religion held by Christians? The answer, which I have no way to discover, depends on how much of this affair they planned in advance.
The University of Georgia limits cheerleading participation to three years regardless of a student's religion. Jaclyn Steele had already had her three years. That should have been the end of it. Certainly, there is a religious bias in this case, but it's a pro-Jewish bias coming from Jaclyn Steele and the ADL, and it is not a pro-Christian bias by Marilou Braswell. The ADL—a Zionist agitprop and espionage organization that uses civil rights causes as a cover—has proved once again that rules are rules, unless you're a Jew: inconvenient rules don't apply to Jews.
Here's a summary of the events as estimated by Drew Cutright an opinion editor for The Georgia Forum.
I assure you that I do not know all the facts in this matter, but upon careful examination of some unclear news reports as well as a personal source that is close to the issue, I have come to the conclusion that these are the facts.
Steele made the football cheerleading squad her first year of trying out as an alternate. She was one of the last two picked. Throughout the season, she was horrified to find out that most of the squad, including its coach, was Christian. Braswell’s husband was a minister and he would sometimes hold voluntary Bible studies for the cheerleaders. Coach Braswell and other Christians on the squad would sometimes ask for prayer requests via a UGA cheerleading list-serv. When Steele tried out for cheerleading her sophomore year, she made the men’s basketball squad, instead of the football squad. Needless to say, Steele felt discriminated against because she was Jewish. At this time, she got the Anti-Defamation League involved and filed a claim against the UGA and Coach Braswell.
The following year, UGA brought in unbiased and independent judges to judge tryouts, without any objection by Braswell. These independent judges’ scores placed Steele on the Women’s basketball cheerleading squad, the worst squad to make. At this point, I believe Steele became angry at the world and tried to do whatever she could to play the discrimination card. In order to appease her and the ADL, the UGA Athletic Department told Braswell that Steele would make the football squad her senior year without trying out and regardless of the rule that cheerleaders only cheered three years at UGA.
When the Athletic Department didn’t have the spine to address Braswell’s squad, the coach felt that she must. When Steele found out about the meeting she made a call to the Athletic Department and probably asked what the ADL would think about the meeting. Braswell was fired a few days later.
That's about what I figured happened. Coach Braswell wasn't unfair to Jaclyn Steele. Coach Braswell was generous to Jaclyn Steele. The panel of independent judges demoted Jaclyn Steele to a cheer squad lower than where she had been placed the previous year by Coach Braswell. The firing of Marilou Braswell and the preceding events have the classic odor of Jewish malice and corruption: everyone in a decision-making capacity knows what the facts are and prefers to assert the lies instead. Everyone in authority knows which side holds justice, but fabricates pretexts whereby to favor the Jew, instead.
Note: I've learned a bit more about Steele's third tryout. Marilou Braswell had been forbidden to score Jaclyn Steele because of Steele's discrimination complaint. But in actual fact, Coach Braswell had been consistently Steele's highest scorer during tryouts in previous years. As the result of Braswell's forced abstention from scoring Steele's tryout performances, Steele scored lower than she'd ever scored before and was relegated to the low-status squad that cheers at women's basketball games. Upon learning of this result, Steele and her parents began complaining that Coach Braswell should have participated in the scoring and that Steele's score was unfairly lowered because of the coach's abstention.
Let us never forget this educational example of Jewish corruption and influence. Jaclyn Steele should be reminded every day of her life that she has cheated, that she got others to help her to cheat, and that as the result of her cheating innocent people were hurt. Of course, if she's a true Jewess, she won't care how many gentiles lost jobs or whatever. Exploiting gentiles for gain comes as naturally to Jews as drinking blood comes to a tick.
Jaclyn Steele, I saw your picture, and you are not all that pretty.
A comment by Jaclyn Steele.
Having encountered Jewish chutzpah on many occasions previously, I was not surprised when I read this:
"I took this issue on because I love the University of Georgia and wanted to help restore integrity to its cheerleading program."
Right. Uh-huh. Surrre. It's just coincidence that she got everything she wanted as the result of her complaint, including a fourth year of cheerleading participation, which nobody else gets, and a free ticket to the most prestigious cheer squad, while each of the other cheerleaders on that squad had to win her place through difficult competition.
Steele's dad chimed in by saying that these goodies weren't Jackie's idea. Oh no, the UGA Athletic Department thought them up all by itself. As if the cowards there couldn't figure out exactly what Jaclyn Steele wanted, notice the implict threats from the ADL, and hasten to compromise their own integrity by excusing a Jewess from the rules.
If you want to know the real reason the arrogant little snot "took this issue on," you'll find clues here. I quote:
The next issue we have to resolve is that involving Jacki Steele. You informed me that Jacki was being awarded a fourth year on the football cheerleading squad, without having to try out, and in violation of previous policies. However, I do not understand why this award is being given to Jacki or how it is connected to my alleged policy violations. This is also working a hardship on me, which I presume is another sanction for previous behavior the University has found objectionable. Jacki is informing me of which rules and regulations she will abide by and which she will not- as I have forwarded her e-mails to you. She did this during the season often also, for example, informing me she would miss (not asking if she could miss) a practice in February because she was going to Las Vegas. Am I to continue to allow her full status on the cheerleading squad when any other student would be disciplined or dismissed? Further, It has come to my attention that Jacki and her parents have told many other students and families things about what I am being forced to do for her and making disparaging remarks about me personally and professionally. I feel certain, were I to respond to these malicious falsehoods I would be accused of retaliation against Jacki. If I am required to have her another year on the cheerleading squad, I would at least like to understand why she has been awarded this fourth year.
—Marilou Braswell, in a letter to the UGA Athletic Department.Jaclyn Steele's Jewish ego has been gratified by the success of her classroom coup, by which she controls the terms of her participation in cheerleading and holds power over her teacher, and not the other way around. She's further pleased by the way the ADL has bullied UGA's administration into bending all the rules for her. I mean, here we have a Jewess student walking all over dozens of rules while the UGA staff throws their coats on the ground ahead of her so her shoes won't get muddy; meanwhile, Marilou Braswell is falsely accused of a single act of rule-breaking and is summarily fired from her job.
What sort of special favors was Jaclyn Steele demanding? In addition to those to which Coach Braswell referred in the quote, above, "Jacki" demanded the right to choose her own stunt partner: a right that no other UGA cheerleader ever had. She wanted to miss 70% of the cheerleading squad's summer practice so that she could summer over in California. And Jaclyn Steele couldn't be bothered with cheering at mere basketball games - such plebian work was beneath her - so she demanded to be exempted from the requirement for basketball duty: an exemption granted to no other football cheerleader.
At each of Jaclyn Steele's demands, Marilou appealed to the Athletic Department for guidance. Every time, UGA told the coach to comply with Steele's wishes...but they refused to put the directive into writing.
Rev. Matt Braswell has put together a list of facts concerning the dishonesty of Jaclyn Steele and her stepfather David Bernath. Rev. Braswell asks some pointed questions, which, if he finds their answers, will tell him as much about Jews as most people ever need to know.
Read this essay about Martha Stewart by William L. Anderson and Candice E. Jackson. Martha Stewart is a noted authority on interior decor and home economics. She was targeted by the federal government for the same nasty take-down that they most often give to politically incorrect people (such as racists); i.e., false charges, false witnesses, a biased judge, malicious jurors, etc., and hence a rigged trial with a predetermined conviction.
Anderson and Jackson made the important deduction that there exist two Americas, and that the two are not precisely those of the Marxist dichotomy: haves and have nots. Rather, the two Americas are those who are subject to the law and those who can disregard the law with impunity. The authors did not name the Jew. Perhaps they did not dare. But if you observe who does what, and what happens afterward, for long enough, it becomes clear that the Jews may be found in the "above-the-law" demographic segment in vastly disproportionate numbers.
Jaclyn Steele has shown herself to be at least a minor member of that privileged class. As only a minor member, there are undoubtedly crimes that she can't yet get away with committing. But she has gotten away with injurious defamation, and Jewishly ill-named Anti-Defamation League has helped her to do it. She has gotten away with setting herself above the cheerleading rules of a major university, and that university's own administrative staff eagerly played the part of accessory.
I have a suspicion, which may be proved either false or true hereafter, that the controversy through which Marilou Braswell was fired is only the opening gambit of a larger campaign to peck away the religious rights of Christians. Incremental subversion is a game at which the organized Jews excel. If Marilou Braswell fails to reverse her firing, or if Jaclyn Steele is permitted to keep her dishonest gains, the ADL, or some other Jewish group, will use this case as a precedent upon which to make further encroachments against Christians.
The judge in Martha Stewart's trial was someone named Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum. I don't suppose that any further comment is necessary.
"To know who are your rulers, first know whom you may not criticize."
George Orwell.A Letter to the Editor, Athens Online
This is in regard to Bruce Frazier's article for WNEG News CHANNEL 32, published on Wednesday, August 25, 2004, at www.wneg32.com
Frazier: "Steele tried out for, and made, the UGA football cheerleading squad when she was a freshman."
That's misleading. Steele was on the UGA football cheer squad in 2001 as an alternate. She was there only because of a chain of ties in the tryout scores in which her male stunt partner was the last to be included by reason of merit.
In 2001, there were eight couples (female cheerleaders and their male stunt partners) rather than the usual six. The young woman in 7th place tied in her tryout scores with the young woman in 6th place, so Coach Braswell included the 7th woman and her stunt partner. But the stunt partner was also tied with a young man who was Jaclyn Steele's stunt partner. Wanting to be fair, Coach Braswell included him, too, and necessarily had to bring Jaclyn Steele along for the ride.
Jaclyn Steele never made the UGA football cheer squad because of her talent. She was merely very lucky to cheer the Bulldogs in 2001. In subsequent years, she was not the beneficiary of freak tie scores, and that's why she was placed nearer to the level of her natural ability in 2002 and in 2003.
Frazier: "However, the next season she tried out and was placed on the men's basketball team, which is considered a lower squad."
Right. It's considered lower because the cheerleader involved doesn't get to prance around the great big outdoor football stadium cheering for the famous DAWGS. There's less prestige in the basketball games simply because of the smaller indoor arena and because UGA's renown in basketball is not so prominent as in football.
What Frazier didn't point out, and should have, is that during the 2002 tryouts, Coach Braswell was Jaclyn Steele's highest scorer, not her lowest. Had it not been for the upward contribution of Braswell's relatively high scores for her, Jaclyn would have made only the women's basketball cheer squad in 2002, as she did in 2003.
Frazier: "In 2003, as a junior, Steele made the women's basketball cheerleading squad, and filed a complaint claiming that she was discriminated against because she was Jewish. Coach Braswell is a devout Christian."
Jaclyn Steele complained to UGA in 2002,1 with the result that Coach Braswell was FORBIDDEN to score Jaclyn's 2003 tryouts. Instead, the average of the scores of the other tryout judges was used as a substitute for Coach Braswell's score. As the result, Jaclyn Steele scored lower than she had ever scored before and was relegated to the least favored cheer squad that performs at women's basketball games.
Every reference to religion in this affair is a politically motivated distraction of the kind detectives call a red herring. The ADL probably encouraged Jaclyn Steele to make a charge of religious discrimination because of the mania which exists in political life in regard to anti-semitism. By making an accusation of religious discrimination, Jaclyn gave herself an aura of victimhood that is tough to beat with mere facts.
Frazier: "After the complaint, Braswell was placed on probation by the University, and held herself out of judging Steele's 2004 tryout. That tryout once again resulted in Steele being placed on the women's hoops cheer squad. After another complaint from Steele, the athletic department ordered that Steele be placed on the football squad."
Frazier is confused.1 Jaclyn Steele participated in UGA cheerleading in 2001, 2002, and 2003. UGA rules restrict everyone to a maximum of three years of cheerleading participation. Jaclyn Steele did not tryout in 2004. Instead, Jaclyn Steele went to the ADL, and together Steele and ADL representative Deborah Lauter concocted an accusation against Coach Braswell regarding the coach's alleged religious discrimination.
1 Perhaps I was the one confused. It may be that Jaclyn Steele complained in 2003, as Frazier said. Did Jaclyn actually serve a year as a women's basketball cheerleader? Or did she whine her way out of it?
Fearing a possible federal lawsuit, UGA Athletic Department head Damon Evans warned Coach Braswell to have "no more religious overtones in your program." Evans went so far as to forbid the coach to conduct Bible studies in her own home for any cheerleaders who wished to participate in them, which is a violation of Marilou Braswell's First Amendment freedom.
Jaclyn Steele wasn't unfairly treated by Coach Braswell: quite the opposite. Coach Braswell went out of her way to foster Jaclyn Steele's chances, to almost the greatest extent she possibly could. Coach Braswell chained ties together in 2001 with the result that Jaclyn was included on the football cheer squad. Coach Braswell pumped up Jaclyn's 2002 scores, relative to those of the other tryout judges, which at least put her in the MEN's basketball cheer squad rather than in the women's. If Coach Braswell can be faulted in regard to Jaclyn Steele, it was for showing her undue favoritism, rather than for adverse religious discrimination.
Coach Braswell was unfairly accused, condemned without evidence, fired on false grounds, and slandered by UGA's self-serving justifications. She's been villified by a media that has given substance to the sham of the religious discrimination charges.
With the help of the ADL's implicit legal threats, Jaclyn Steele managed to trod underfoot most of UGA's rules in regard to cheerleader participation, while the administrative staff of the UGA Athletic Department figuratively threw their coats on the ground before her so her shoes wouldn't get dirty.
Coach Braswell tried to explain Jaclyn Steele's unearned presence on the football squad to the other cheerleaders, imparting the least information necessary, using language intended to mitigate their animosity as much as possible (read paragraph 3 of Marilou Braswell's prepared statement). And for this, she was fired. Each of UGA's three stated justifications for firing her is false.
UGA: "Discourteous and disruptive behavior"
Coach Braswell's prepared statement was neither. It was as gracious as it could be made to be, and it was aimed at securing the harmony of the football cheer squad. For several weeks prior to reading this statement to her football cheer squad, Coach Braswell tried to have someone within UGAA do the explaining, but none of them would step forward. It would have been irresponsible for the coach to say nothing and thereby encourage the other cheerleaders to draw speculative and perhaps wildly incorrect conclusions.
UGA: "Retaliating against students who report what they believe to be discrimination."
Jaclyn Steele knew very well that Coach Braswell had not discriminated against her. Jaclyn was abusing the system - that is, using it as a weapon - to retaliate against Coach Braswell for not favoring her SUFFICIENTLY that Jaclyn might have what Jaclyn wanted. In order to get what she wanted, namely another year as a football cheerleader, Jaclyn (and the ADL, and the cowards in the UGAA) threw Coach Braswell into the fire.
Further, if you will read Coach Braswell's statement carefully, you'll see that there is nothing retaliatory in it. Thus, UGA's second pretext for firing Marilou Braswell is false.
UGA: "Disclos[ing] information contained in education records protected by the Family Educational and Privacy Rights (FERPA), to unauthorized persons, without the student’s parents’ written consent."
That pretext would be valid ONLY if Coach Braswell's prepared statement contained information which Coach Braswell learned by reading Jaclyn Steele's educational records. Coach Braswell has every right to share with others what she knows from her own experience.
An analogy might help in understanding this point. If a high school student is bright enough to deduce the resolution of US spy satellites, or the top speed of a new US jet fighter, he is free to share his opinions on those subjects with anyone - provided that he has not confirmed his beliefs with officially protected classified documents. Once he does that, though, he must hush up.
What Marilou Braswell knew of Jaclyn Steele's complaint didn't come from a protected document, but from her own experience. The First Amendment guarantees her freedom to relate her personal experiences to others, even if some of what she knows is, unknown to her, contained in a protected document somewhere.
It must be this way, necessarily. Otherwise, nobody would ever know what chance remark could get them into trouble because essentially the same information happened to have been written in a protected source without their knowledge.
So all three of UGA's pretexts for firing Marilou Braswell were lies. And those weren't the only lies.
Ed Tolley, an Athens attorney, falsely informed Marilou Braswell at a meeting with Damon Evans (at which her presence was required) that the state attorney general had phoned him with a demand that she be punished for religious discrimination. A later phone call by Reverend Braswell to the attorney general's office revealed that no such communication ever took place. It may have been the intent of Mr. Tolley and Mr. Evans to intimidate the coach with the fear of going to prison. By this subterfuge, they probably hoped to elicit Coach Braswell's compliance with Damon Evan's list of prohibited acts, which included a prohibition on Bible studies being carried on in the Braswell home.2
2 This lie alone should render UGA vulnerable to a civil complaint, if not to a criminal prosecution. An attorney, apparently while representing the University of Georgia, abused the authority of the attorney general to intimidate a citizen, with the intention that the citizen, so intimidated, would forego the exercise of her constitutional rights. If that's not illegal behavior on the part of a barrister, then what is?
Did you know that Jaclyn Steele and her parents actually criticized Coach Braswell following the 2003 tryouts for NOT scoring Jaclyn? When they found out that Jaclyn had scored lower as the result of the coach's abstention, they blamed the coach for abstaining. When Coach Braswell reminded them that she had been forbidden to score Jaclyn that year, Jaclyn again went to the UGAA to make a new complaint of verbal "cruelty."
Did you know that Jaclyn Steele is the only cheerleader to be exempted from the three-year maximum for cheerleading participation? The University of Georgia brazenly violated its own rules for political reasons.
Once that was done, Jaclyn Steele knew that she, and not her teacher, controlled the terms of her cheerleading participation. Jaclyn began informing Coach Braswell of which rules she would obey, and which ones she would not.
Jaclyn Steele skipped practices, knowing she was immune to being kicked off the squad. She demanded the right to choose her own stunt partner, which is a right not granted to other cheerleaders.
Also, in 2004 the football cheer squad was required to perform at some basketball games. However, Jaclyn Steele found basketball duty beneath her dignity and demanded to be exempted.
Rev. Braswell says that at each of these outrages, Marilou asked for guidance from the UGA Athletic Department, and always the answer was to give Jaclyn Steele what she wanted. But Damon Evans never put those directives into writing.
There is now some suspicion that the ADL may have been using Jaclyn Steele as a "stalking horse" to create a precedent for contracting the freedoms of Christians while expanding those of Jews. To see why that suspicion is reasonable, simply consider how this case has altered the freedom of Christians in relation to those of Jews.
It had already been established that one may not use taxpayer-funded resources, some paid by Christians and some paid by non-Christians, for the benefit of Christians. (The logic used here is strange, since you can indeed tax people who have no children in public schools to build public schools.)
But now, if you're a Christian, it is not sufficient that you refrain from practicing your religion at a state institution; further, you must also refrain from practicing your religion IN YOUR OWN HOME with people whom you MET at a state-funded institution. If you do practice Christianity in your home with, say, Christian UGA cheerleaders, then the first Jewish cheerleader who becomes displeased at not being assigned to her favorite cheer squad can go to the ADL and get you FIRED from your job at the state-funded institution.
See how it works? Simply apply the time-tested principle of "cui bono," and the suspicion of prior collusion between the ADL and Jaclyn Steele precipitates out of this solution, as clear as a bell.
You really should inform yourself better in regard to the dispute between Marilou Braswell, UGA, and Jaclyn Steele, and you should also understand the significance of ADL involvement in it. When you gain that understanding, you should print a thoroughly researched description of these happenings for the benefit of your readership.
Jerry Abbott
A web-board poster named EvilDrPuma quoted an article published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that partially described the refusal by U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., to reinstate Marilou Braswell to her former position as UGA head cheerleading coach. The article said that Thrash doubted the merits of Mrs. Braswell's case. It further reports, "Former cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell says she was fired because of religious discrimination."
After presenting the excerpt from the AJC article, EvilDrPuma wrote: "You may wish to reserve the right to find this reasoning ironic."
Well, duh. Sure. The judge's reasoning - that Marilou's "religious discrimination" complaint against UGA is of doubtful merit, in conjunction with the fact that Marilou had been fired by UGA because of a false, malicious "religious discrimination" complaint by Jaclyn Steele - is ironic. Indeed, it is very ironic. We have two complaints: one by a Jew, one by a Christian. And the judge presumes that UGA correctly acted upon the Jew's complaint, whereas he, a judge, would be incorrect to make a temporary redress based on the Christian's complaint, pending the results of fact-finding by the court.
That irony is so glaring that we can reasonably suppose that either UGA or the Jews, or both, have somehow got the "fix" into this civil suit, such that Marilou Braswell doesn't even have a Martha Stewart's chance at a fair hearing. The merits of Mrs. Braswell's case are solid, as anyone who has taken the trouble to research the history of her cause can determine. In a fair court, Marilou Braswell would win quickly and easily, and UGA would soon find itself reaching into its pockets for settlement money. Judge Thrash's words are a signal that his court may not be fair.
But that irony isn't the irony that EvilDrPuma refers to. No. What he means is that people who commit religious discrimination aren't entitled to complain when they become the victims of religious discrimination. That is, he's implying that Marilou Braswell has no standing to sue UGA because, as the lawyers put it, her hands aren't clean.
On the contrary, Marilou's hands ARE clean. The judge slung mud on her legal prospects, and I can only think of one reason for why he might do that. Jaclyn Steele's complaint with the UGA Athletic Department against Marilou Braswell for religious discrimination is malicious, self-serving and falsely exculpatory. Jaclyn Steele abused the complaint process - that is, she used it as a weapon - to gain status and favors at the expense of her former coach's job. Marilou Braswell became the victim of religious discrimination on multiple occasions, including:
1) When the UGA Athletic Department acted upon Steele's accusation without any evidence that it was true, a Jew's word was presumed to have a greater truthfulness than the word of a Christian.
2) When the UGA Athletic Department forbade Braswell to practice her religion in her own home with the voluntary participation of people whom she met at work.
Further, the UGA Athletic Department retaliated against Marilou Braswell by firing her because she read her prepared statement. The real reason they fired her was that she had embarrassed them by calling attention to their grants of special favors to a Jewish cheerleader who had gone to the ADL and threatened them with a lawsuit.
A majority of the talking heads on the Internet have turned the facts of this matter upside down by making out as if Marilou Braswell were the perpetrator of every crime and abuse that she has been the victim of. This is, of course, simply more abuse. And it isn't the first time I've seen it conducted on this scale. It happened, for example, after an Israeli soldier, driving a bulldozer, intentionally ran over and murdered Rachel Corrie in Gaza in March 2003.
White Nationalists - study this! Marilou Braswell is as innocent and as deserving of redress as they come. We simply must come up with a way to counteract this flood of lying garbage that the Jews can bring forth at almost a moment's notice.
Here's a letter from Mrs. Gloria S. Perkins, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give her opinion about Marilou Braswell's firing.
Your Oct. 20 editorial shows what can happen when Athens' "sacred cow," University of Georgia football, is touched.
You say UGA cheerleader Jaclyn Steele shouldn't have been given a fourth year on the squad and wasn't sincere in complaining she felt ostracized because of her faith, but failed to mention that now she is back on the coveted football squad, she apparently feels better.
You also forgot to mention the incompetence of UGA's athletic association. Cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell was never allowed to face her accusers, received very little guidance from UGA's legal counsel and was placed on probation.
Braswell's superiors violated her rights by asking her not to have a Bible study in her home, violated her privacy by telling other employees about her probation and refused or ignored her requests for assistance in explaining to other cheerleaders why Steele was returning for an extra year without a tryout. Shame on Michael Adams, Damon Evans and the athletic association for their cowardice.
Braswell is neither a saint nor a martyr, but rather an employee with integrity. She was hurt and violated because her employer failed to give the help and support she needed and deserved.
Gloria S. Perkins
WatkinsvilleMrs. Perkins is essentially correct, except for one thing. In this case, the "sacred cow" isn't UGA football; it's the Jews. And criticizing the Jews, or failing to give them what they demand, breaks a taboo much stronger than that pertaining to the UGA Dawgs.
Here's a letter from Mrs. Karen Schwind, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give her opinion.
Every article I've read on the Marilou Braswell story quoted the displaced cheerleader as if her accusations were true. Not once have I seen anyone ask whether this is really the story of a young woman who became angry because she wasn't good enough to make the first string team and decided to get even with someone.
I don't know anything about cheerleading, but apparently cheering for women's basketball is considered to be the cheerleading pit. If what I've been told is true, however, Braswell had nothing to do with Jaclyn Steele being relegated to that squad. Every cheerleader has to try out every year and is judged by an independent panel. It is that panel, not the coach, who chooses which team the girls will be on. I don't see what Braswell's religion has to do with Steele's demotions. I also would like to know, if this is indeed true, why the Athens Banner-Herald hasn't bothered to research the process and print this information instead of implying this story could have only one side.
Karen Schwind
Mrs. Schwind's remarks are very perceptive. Indeed, Marilou Braswell's religion has nothing to do with Jaclyn Steele's demotions. Mrs. Braswell's religion only served Steele as a convenient pretext for a bogus discrimination complaint.
It sounds as though Mrs. Schwind may be on the edge of finding out how the Jews control the media, and, with the media, control much of American politics and corrupt the legal system. It's a long and painful process, with many painful shocks and humiliating discoveries, when a White person first learns how his people lost the country they created through the machinations of a clever parasitic minority.
Here's a letter from Mr. Ray Lawrence, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give his opinion.
You got it all wrong in your editorial (Oct. 20) concerning Coach Marilou Braswell, allowing your personal bias and sarcasm to get in the way.
This case is about a cheerleader who didn't get what she wanted and decided to pull out the old Christian-bias complaint. The coach is trying to respond to charges that have no merit, have damaged her reputation and cost her her job. Your assertion she should have kept her mouth shut is amazing.
I guess if you're a Christian working in a government job you should just roll over and let anybody kick you. I guess hiring a lawyer is about the most "negative action" a person can take against unmerited, malicious accusations. The cheerleader is backed by an organization that has an army of lawyers to protect her rights.
And to see this as a fight over "her Christian beliefs, stance and lifestyle" when those beliefs, stance and lifestyle are the reason for the complaint, does not mean you are trying to climb up on a cross. You should take your reference to I Corinthians 13:11 and apply it to the actions of the cheerleader.
Ray Lawrence
Right. Nearly every wild accusation made against Marilou Braswell could be made much more appropriately and accurately against Jaclyn Steele. Steele's comparatively low skills, not Braswell's estimate of them, placed Steele on the basketball cheer squads. Steele, not Braswell, did the retaliating. Steele is lying; Braswell is telling the truth. Braswell did not discriminate against Steele for religious reasons; Steele brought religion into controversy as a means of disguising her vendetta and her selfish pursuit of ambition.
Here's a letter from Mrs. Barb Twist, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give her opinion.
Your vicious personal attacks on Marilou Braswell (Editorial, Oct. 20) go well beyond the pale.
While it is absolutely your First Amendment right to criticize the merits of her case against the University of Georgia, you allowed your opinion to be tainted by sarcasm and mocking references to the Bible.
Also, your facts are a bit skewed as Coach Braswell hired an attorney to represent and protect her First Amendment rights well before the "disruptive and discourteous statement" was read to the cheerleaders and, furthermore, was not done to initiate a lawsuit against the cheerleader in question.
And, as to the creation of the Web site, it was done at the request of many of Coach Braswell's supporters around the state who wanted to be kept abreast of continuing developments in her case without having to call her at home. Supporters of Marilou also wanted practical ways to help with her case, and thus a defense fund was established.
Your "suggestion" that Coach Braswell should "climb down from her cross" is both an offense to Christians and to anyone else who aspires to journalistic professionalism. The viciousness behind that statement certainly indicates that if anyone has put Coach Braswell "on a cross," it is your newspaper.
Barb Twist
I share Barb Twist's anger, though not her surprise, that the media would twist facts. In a court battle in which the interests of Jews and the interests of Christians come into conflict, you can often identify Jewish assets by the way they are used in regard to that conflict. Most of the mainstream media are in Jewish hands, and I suspect that a number of Christians who didn't already know that fact will discover it now.
Here's a letter from Mrs. Amber Theory, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give her opinion.
You seem to indicate (Editorial, Dec. 22) that fired University of Georgia cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell was dismissed for reading to her team a statement she was told not to read.
From what I have read, there were five requests from Braswell to athletics officials Frank Crumley and Damon Evans for assistance on how to tell her team that Jaclyn Steele was being given a place without trying out. Braswell invited the two officials to come to the meeting or to write a statement she would read. After getting no response, she prepared a statement and sent it to Crumley and Evans for approval.
She received no response, read the statement believing it was approved, then e-mailed Crumley and Evans on the day she read it, saying she had done so. She was open and honest about every step of the process.
At any rate, three-fourths of the statement was encouraging the team to have a positive attitude and unite, as well as welcoming Jaclyn to the team.
Amber Theory
RoswellAlthough UGAA officials have denied being served advance notice by Mrs. Braswell in regard to her prepared statement, I believe that Marilou did indeed serve them with ample notice and made every reasonable request for guidance with respect to whether she should read her statement to her cheerleaders. That is, I think that the UGAA administrators are lying.
I've wondered whether Damon Evans might have used Marilou's intention to read her prepared statement as a kind of trap. When he read Mrs. Braswell's email, in which she asked for guidance on the statement's appropriateness, perhaps Evans thought to himself, "Ah, now I have her. I shall simply withhold guidance, and when Braswell reads that statement, I will see to it that she is fired for this, that, and the other thing."
Prior to firing Braswell, Evans displayed a remarkable habit of firing long-time employees who had been loyal to UGA for years. Rumor had it that he did this at the behest of UGA President Michael Adams. It is known that a large number of university deans and senior UGA administrators were replaced during Adams' reign. There are suggestions that Adams was jealous of Vince Dooley because, as one writer put it,
"Dooley and his supporters meant more to the university than Adams did. Adams knew Dooley liked his successful staff, so Adams did what he had to: got rid of Dooley, promoted Evans, Dooley supporters fired, Adams now all smiles." -Tallydawg01, Athens Online Forum.
Another rumor has it that Damon Evans fired those employees in order to show that he "was his own man" - i.e., that he didn't necessarily have to accept the judgment of his predecessor, the legendary Vince Dooley, about what makes a good Athletic Department employee. I don't know whether, or to what extent, either rumor might be true.
Here's a letter from Mrs. Barbara Condon, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give her opinion.
In response to your Dec. 22 editorial on the federal judge's ruling against former University of Georgia cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell, who filed a motion seeking reinstatement, I agree that Braswell had to deal with a liberal, Clinton-appointed judge, but her worst critic is again the liberal-minded press.
Not reported were the judge's comments that his ruling did not mean he found Braswell had discriminated against anyone. He also said the letter sent to Braswell notifying her she was on probation made him uncomfortable because it told her to cease having Bible study - the one her husband had in their home - and to not use any religious figures' names in front of her team, and not to let the cheerleaders ask each other for prayer on the university e-mail.
Did Braswell's attorney, Hue Henry, do a good job in the 30 minutes he had to speak? I believe he should have emphasized how many times Braswell asked athletics officials to help her explain to her team why the cheerleader who complained of religious discrimination was on the team, and their ignoring that request.
I think he should have shown Braswell asked repeatedly what she had done wrong to warrant placing the cheerleader on the team for an unprecedented fourth year. To this day, athletics officials have never told her, because there was no discrimination. Remember, Jan Kemp lost her bid for reinstatement, too.
Barbara Condon
MariettaAh, finally someone other than myself has recognized that Damon Evans infringed on Marilou Braswell's freedom to exercise her religion in her home, thereby violating her First Amendment rights. In a fair court, this is all Braswell would need to win her lawsuit. Nothing else is required, other than that she show (with the balance of evidence in her favor) that Damon Evans did attempt to use his authority to curtail or to restrict the Braswells' home Bible studies. With that done, UGA must be ordered to pay a settlement and penalties.
Not that one is needed, but there is an aggravating factor. Remember Ed Tolley's false statement to Marilou Braswell, in which he falsely claimed that the attorney general demanded that the cheerleading coach be punished for religious discrimination? That attempt to intimidate Coach Braswell into meek acceptance of her probation, including its provisions regarding her home Bible studies, should surely offend the judge and cause him to weigh, even more heavily, in favor of Mrs. Braswell.
To be sure, there might be other acts by University of Georgia's administrative staff that also violated Coach Braswell's religious freedom, but this act alone should be sufficient for her to win. So I'm not sure what the judge's problem with ordering UGA to rehire Marilou Braswell as head cheerleading coach was.
Here's a letter from Mr. Philip Herold, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give his opinion.
Jim Ponsoldt (Letters, Dec. 28) argues the University of Georgia was retaliating in the firing of former cheerleading coach Marilou Braswell. Retaliation suggests some punitive action, rather than a right that a business has, as a matter of course, to hire and fire.
Imagine how paralyzed the UGA would be if it were to have to "protect" the speech of every employee who decided to stray outside the bounds of professional behavior. In my capacity as employee, my boss tells me what my opinion is. My employers rent my brain and professional skills. I perform the function for which I was hired, and that is it.
How is it that an employee thinks bringing her religion into the workplace is even appropriate to begin with? Had Braswell taught cheerleading, and done only that, she would never have had this problem. I would suggest she seek employment at one of our nation's many religiously oriented private colleges.
Philip Herold
AtlantaCoach Braswell did "teach cheerleading." If her religion influenced how she did it, it wasn't anything more than any other religious coach has done. Perhaps less.
Let's not forget that UGA enumerated three specific reasons for why Mrs. Braswell was fired. I've argued (see above) that all three of those reasons are either false or irrelevant. Discourteous and disruptive behavior? Retaliating? Violating a student's FERPA rights? Braswell is not guilty on all three counts.
UGA's real reason for firing Coach Braswell went unstated because it is an unworthy reason: they were afraid of an ADL-backed lawsuit on behalf of Jaclyn Steele, so, although knowing that Coach Braswell was in the right of things, they behaved with hypocritical contrariness and made the coach the scapegoat.
In the course of doing that, UGA (in the person of Damon Evans) probably violated Marilou Braswell's First Amendment rights to practice her religion in her home with the voluntary participation of people whom she had met at her place of work. It doesn't matter that those "people" were cheerleaders because cheerleaders can have private lives off the field. It doesn't matter that the "place of work" was a public school because the Bible studies did not take place there.
Related news articles.
Fired coach makes case to AD: Allegations of religious bias, by Ross Markman
Look at football team, ex-cheer coach's lawyer says: Claims double standard with religious activities, by Ross Markman
Teaming with religion: UGA in spotlight Seen as blessing - and aberration - in public university sports, by Ross Markman
Here's a letter from Rabbi Ronald D. Gerson, who wrote to the Athens Banner-Herald to give his opinion.
Prayer in public schools should avoid sectarian note
Rabbi Ronald D. GersonUntil now, I have withheld public comment with respect to the Marilou Braswell situation. I do not know exactly what was said in the prayers with the cheerleaders. I cannot ascribe guilt or innocence to the Braswells or the university; that is for the federal court to decide.
However, outside of this, in a much larger sense, with respect to all sectarian prayers in public tax-supported settings, I want to offer some clarification on a term that is being bandied about in the discussion - "religious freedom." In our country, religious freedom pertains to free and unfettered worship in our respective houses of worship and other religious institutions. But, when prayers of a certain specific faith group are forced into the public arena, it then abrogates both parts of the First Amendment regarding religion - it is establishing one religion over others; and it is preventing the free exercise of faith by those of these other spiritual groups.
Interestingly, I have offered prayers in two very major public venues - the U.S. House of Representatives and at several University of Georgia graduations. In both cases, I was given very strict instructions - by the House chaplain and then the UGA president's office - to keep my prayer completely general and devoid of any specific sectarian references.
If this is required of clergy, as well it should be, we should require all prayer leaders - in public places - to do the same.
Rabbi Ronald D. Gerson
Rabbi Ronald D. Gerson should acquaint himself with the facts pertaining to Jaclyn Steele's accusation of "religious discrimination" against Marilou Braswell. While a first impression might be that Steele is the victim and Braswell the perpetrator, continued study will show that the reverse is true.
Jaclyn Steele is a mediocre performer among UGA cheerleaders, who in her first year at UGA was lucky to be given a place above her talents. (It was the result of a freak chain of tie scores in which Steele's male stunt partner was the last to be included for his own merit.) But in the following two years, she was not the beneficiary of such an accident, and she became angry about demotions.
She went to the ADL, and between them Steele and Deborah Lauter crafted "an opinion" that Coach Braswell had violated the First Amendment. The ADL's statement prompted UGAA staff to act upon Steele's complaint as if it were true - there never was an investigation.
Every reference to religion in the popular press related to this matter is a distraction of the sort detectives call a red herring. Jaclyn Steele's complaint was false. The real victim of religious discrimination is Marilou Braswell.
UGA violated Mrs. Braswell's rights when they forbade her to exercise her religion in her home with the voluntary participation of people whom she had met at her place of work. It does not matter that her workplace is a tax-funded institution.
Every conflict between Jews and non-Jews that makes national news headlines seems to cause Jews to hatch a false and self-serving account of related events, which account they promote via all the major media. The columnist parroting this doctrine might not always be Jewish, but the slant chosen for the column is consistently the one which favors Jewish interests.
Here's an example.
From the Los Angeles Times
Praying for the elimination of inflexibility (excerpt)
by Joseph N. BellWhat some of you may not have picked up on is a school prayer dispute, now taking place at the University of Georgia, that has escalated to the federal courts. There, a cheerleading coach named Marilou Braswell was allegedly putting heavy pressure on students to attend Bible study sessions at her home, conducted by her minister husband. Braswell also led the group in prayer before they were about to perform.
When an admittedly talented Jewish cheerleader named Jaclyn Steele complained to Braswell about the pressure on her to participate in the prayer sessions, she was busted down from the prestigious football squad to the minor leagues of cheerleading. And when she carried her complaints to school authorities, Braswell was ordered to put Steele back on the varsity and to cut out religious activities in connection with cheerleading. When Braswell then castigated both Steele and the athletic department in a statement read to her team, she was fired.
People are reading that kind of thing all over the country, and maybe all over the world. And almost all of those readers are getting a completely false impression of the nature of this controversy.
1. Nobody is hearing about the actual level of cheerleading ability of Jaclyn Steele, which is mediocre in relation to the talents of her fellow UGA cheerleaders. Instead, people are led to believe that Steele was the very best performer, and that her demotions were the result of "antisemitism."
2. Nobody is hearing anything that would make them suspect that Jaclyn Steele's possible motive in filing her religious discrimination complaint against Marilou Braswell was a part of a vendetta or was motivated by a very selfish pursuit of ambition.
3. Nobody is hearing about Coach Braswell's being Jackie Steele's highest scorer in the tryouts, or about Braswell's weaving of ties together so that Jackie would make the football cheer squad in 2001.
4. Nobody is hearing about Jacob Volk, a Jewish cheerleader for UGA who cheered for the Bulldogs three years running without ever attending the Braswells' Bible studies even once, and who has denied that there was ever any religious discrimination against him by Coach Braswell.
5. Nobody is hearing about the religious discrimination that Marilou Braswell suffered as the result of the unfair terms of "probation" imposed on her by Damon Evans.
6. Nobody is hearing about Jaclyn Steele's demands to be exempted from required practices, to be exempted from doing basketball duty, and to have other rights that no other UGA cheerleader ever had. And nobody is hearing about how UGAA quietly kept ordering Coach Braswell to give Jaclyn everything she wanted.
7. Nobody (outside Georgia and except for web pages such as this one) is hearing the actual text of Marilou Braswell's prepared statement. Instead, they are being told that the coach "castigated" Jaclyn Steele in that prepared statement.
I could go on, but you get the idea. The Jewish media have turned their trademark "volcano of lies" against Marilou Braswell. Not many people, however honorable they are, can keep their good name in the face of libelous deception on such an immense scale. Millions of people will hear the Jewish version of this controversy, i.e., the false version, and will make the naive assumption that it is the truth.