All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.
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To Mr. Mark DeEulio,
Tampa, Florida
Obviously, there was a concerted effort on the part of Scientology and Richard Haworth to flood my fax machine with requests on an upcoming legal issue. Also it appears that Dr. David Singer, a local chiropractor and Scientologist, used his offices to process the vast majority of this mail. It appears you were not acting as individuals expressing your own personal concerns, but you were expressing the concerns of a manufactured perspective.
With regard to the fact that Scientologists are moving to Clearwater in record numbers, from the 3,000 that claim to live here, to the 30,000 you claim in your letter, I welcome them all with open arms. I have never found anything adverse in the personality of any human being claiming to be a Scientologist. Everyone I have met personally has been a very fine, upstanding human being and citizen.
Regarding your quote about "higher government and the constitution" and Scientology being a religion, I believe you have your law a little upside down. The Internal Revenue Service does not create law in the United States of America. Congress creates law - the Internal Revenue Service creates regulations, and the courts of the United States determine whether Congress, and any regulatory authority, properly created the law according to the Constitution.
With regard to Scientology being a religion, that is an issue at the court level, not at the Internal Revenue level. They are merely the tax collector for America. There are also cities, counties and states that have rights to collect taxes and that issue is still at the state and local court levels. The court level decision is not for the City of Clearwater to determine, and that decision will be acted on by the Tax Collector of Pinellas County, Mr. Jim Smith. The City of Clearwater has no legal authority in this arena.
With regards to taxes and the City of Clearwater and Scientology, I have great concerns that Scientology is not paying taxes. The City of Clearwater provides services for all people in the City, both residents and guests. City of Clearwater taxpayers pay for the police protection, fire protection, emergency medical services, streets, water, sewer, parks and recreation, libraries, schools, street lights, and on and on....
The Church of Scientology takes advantage of all those services, free of charge. I believe that to be an abuse of the separate church/state relationship. This is not a religious issue with me - this is about the cost of providing services without the people receiving them paying for those services.
With regard to the religious issue, I don't believe personally, someone should pay for religious services. That is my personal opinion. I believe that to be discrimination to the people that do not have the money to receive services. That issue concerns me personally. I believe all theologies should be open to all people - and not based on how much money they have, but solely based on their beliefs in that given theology. It appears to me that the people that can't afford your theology must then become employees of the Church of Scientology for extremely low wages, food, uniforms and free housing. That is a form of slavery in repayment for religious training. I am sure there are other examples of this in the world.
I am sure that in some part of Tibet there is a monastery where a monk has given up his life and taken vows of poverty to be trained in that specific theology. I personally am not of the monk mentality. I don't understand that, nor can I relate to that type of thinking.
The tone of your letter was threatening. If your purpose is to bring the relationship of Scientologists in the City of Clearwater back to the days when they sneaked into town, had submachine gun patrols around the Ft. Harrison Hotel, and on the rooftop of the hotel, then you are headed in the right direction. To write a letter threatening that you have the ability to politically and economically take over the day of Clearwater is not, in my opinion, in the best interest of good relations, to say the least!
I will close by saying I have nothing against Scientologists welcome everyone with open arms. I am impressed by the intellectual level of the individual people that I have met that are Scientologist. They are some of the brightest, caring and loving people I have ever met. However, the rest of my letter speaks for itself.
Fred Thomas
City Commissioner