In a recent news story from California, the vague line defining the separation of church and state has become ever so slightly more blurred. A development in the northern part of the state has a brotherhood of friars in a legal battle which may grow to constitutional proportions over their right to conduct their business. For many years this brotherhood has been sequestered away in a few meadow-filled acres in the low, forest covered foot hills north of Sacramento. Their only source of income for the monastery was the produce raised in their garden, which they sold to local markets, and to the occasional visitors to their Spanish-style monastery. There the trouble arose. The visitors noticed that in addition to garden-fresh organically grown produce, the friars also tended some of the most beautiful flower gardens to be found in the state. Soon, visitors were coming to see the flower gardens as much as for the vegetables. And, as the nature of business would have it, soon the good brothers were in the business of selling arrangements of their flowers to visitors. This soon became such a bustling business that it interfered with their normal devotional duties, and it was decided to move the shops off of the premises and into a small store on the edge of the local town. This shop soon turned such a high volume of business that they set up another store, just for the flowers and arrangements, in a bigger shop in town. Their flowers were so beautiful and arrangements so tastefully done that their business thrived. Now, their shop is one of the best known and most called in Northern California. The other florists in the area, whose businesses were slumping, became upset because they felt that the good brothers had an unfair advantage because they do not have to pay taxes on the purchases of their materials, nor on the sales in their shops since they go to run a charitable organization.. According to a spokesman, this means that they do not have the expenses of the other flower shops in the area. This constitutes an unfair advantage for the friars.. This prompted the other shops to engage an attorney to petition their local legislators to do something. The shops have taken the matter as far as the State House, which is due to due to hold a hearing starting this week on the petition. To enhance their chances of prevailing in the cause, they flower shops who felt most threatened hired an agency to help prepare their message. And thus, this last week, every member the committee investigating the legality the good brothers selling flowers were presented with a letter with the following heading... Remember, you, and only you, can prevent Florist Friars..
Seems to me the beleagered florists need to revaluate their use of funds. I would suggest that money spent on lawyer fees just might get a higher rate of return by growing a better product than the good Friars now produce. Build it BETTER and they will come..... back.
ga, There's a tract of untouched pristine land in the heart of Oregon, called the Reeve Embers. An architect named J.J. West and a financier named Bill Rowe have joined forces to create two spires in the middle of this land. Their goal is to infuse the area with tourist money. They plan to accomplish this by making the spires attractions. One spire, will be an indoor interactive playground similar to the DisneyQuest attraction in Orlando, FL. It features numerous virtual reality and cutting edge technology type games. The other spire will feature an outlet mall, movie theater and food court. Many of the residents that live around Reeve Embers are up in arms over the plan. They prefer the area stay unspoiled and they don't want the surrounding towns to be become tourist traps. The residents have called for a hearing with the county commission and started a grass roots campaign to stop the developers. When the local paper "The Timber Inquirer" first got wind of the coming fight, they ran with the headline: Reeve Ember: Only You Can Prevent Rowe/West Spires.
