NDR Media Coverage

Our View: State needs to clarify rules and stick to them

by Jack Van Valkenburgh

The fight over access to the Statehouse steps isn't about believers vs. atheists.

It's about consistency. It's about sticking to policy even when it's uncomfortable to do so.

The Department of Administration has a scheduling mess on its hands, which it has managed to make worse.

Two diametrically opposed groups — local organizers of the National Day of Prayer, and Idaho Atheists — both asked to hold events at the Statehouse on Thursday.

The atheists asked first.

The state reserves the Statehouse steps on a first-come, first-served basis.

But come Thursday, the National Day of Prayer will be there instead.

Tim Mason, the statewide facilities manager, says the state mistakenly reserved the Statehouse steps for the atheists. He says the National Day of Prayer, an event dating back to the Truman administration, is a "recurring event" that has a standing place on the schedule the first Thursday of every May. Instead, it got lost in a computer glitch.

The recurring event argument just doesn't wash. The Statesman Thursday obtained the schedules for the Statehouse steps for the next year; only a handful of events are scheduled past next month, and none from December through April 2006.

Conspicuous in its absence is the annual human rights rally held each January since 1989, before the Legislature even approved a Martin Luther King Jr./Human Rights Day. Boise State University has quietly and routinely reserved the Statehouse steps each year. Last year, the university faxed in its application in December, said Rob Meyer, Boise State University's associate director for student activities. Mason says the annual rally isn't a recurring event because its organizers haven't asked for it to be booked as such.

Atheists are threatening to sue, which would certainly be an unusual step. Most groups are quick to shift events to fit into an available time slot, Mason said, because they want access to the state's most visible public building. But this is an unusual circumstance. And mistakenly or not, the state made a promise to the atheists based on its own policy.

Clearly, Boise is a city where believers outnumber atheists. However, this isn't a popularity contest. The Statehouse is open, free of charge, to any group that wants to hold a public event. If the rules treat applications on a first-come, first-served basis, the state should adhere to them.

The state's job is straightforward: Make sure events aren't double-booked; make sure groups can use audio equipment or podiums; make sure groups pick up after themselves. Mason says, appropriately, that he avoids a "subjective analysis" of the groups seeking access. Clarifying the rules — and sticking with them — would cement that promise.

Copyright 2005 The Idaho Statesman

Original article available here.

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