VansOpinion - SOTO UN-SEPARATES STATE AND CHURCH

Practically every day we hear someone beating the drum for "Separation of Church and State." Generally speaking, they often don't have any idea about where the term came from or what it suggests other than the ranting and raving of anti-religious folks who want to tinker with anything that includes God in government. Some who have outgrown piercing various parts of their anatomy with rings and bangles use the term to get usually undeserved attention. Jose J. Soto can puncture whatever he wants, but he should not be taking taxpayers time to play on the Internet

Jose J. Soto, Vice President of Affirmative Action, Equity and Diversity at Southeast Community, whose office is in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, obviously thinks it is acceptable to snitch taxpayers' time to post his opinions in response to articles published on StatePaper.com. Soto is a 1984 graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law, and should know better. I have enough problems with folks like Jesse Jackson, Soto and others who make well-paid careers out of being divisive professional "minorities", stating, saying, writing, posting or communicating in any other way their thoughts, beliefs and opinions ON THEIR OWN TIME. It is a far different story when state owned computers on state paid Internet time are used by state employees, particularly during working hours, for purposes which are not job connected.

On five or more occasions Soto has responded to articles published on StatePaper.com signing off as Jose J. Soto, jsoto@scc.cc.ne.us, Higher Ed Administration, Lincoln. The last instance was his response to a story written by my friend Ed Howard, former Capitol Bureau Chief for the Associated Press entitled "Archbishop Curtiss Blows Up At A Woman Who Blew the Whistle."

www.StatePaper.com is a top notch Internet news reporting service on which readers can respond to stories published and to others who have previously responded. It most definitely, in my opinion, does a better job off reporting the same topics covered by the Lincoln Journal Star or the Omaha World Herald. The two newspapers, however, are able to cover a greater number of stories due to having much larger staffs . Howard is one of the last professionally competent investigative journalists still remaining in Nebraska.

If Soto had elected to engage in an intellectual sparring match with Howard ON HIS OWN TIME, and ON HIS OWN COMPUTER, I would have not seen the need to enter the picture. When Soto had the unmitigated gall to pontificate about matters more appropriately left to the "Pontiff" and do so on "company time" I believe at least administrative censure is warranted. As a member of a particular minority who is a person of reasonably high visibility, he should serve as a worthy example to students, minority or otherwise, of good citizenship and responsible stewardship of taxpayers' resources. I feel he has shown to have engaged in at least very poor judgment if not illegal conduct and the administration of Southeast Community College should investigate the matter and report findings to the public. If he is going to be allowed to continue to mis-use a state owned computer, let him do it like many other bureaucrats - by playing solitaire - and maybe I won't catch him next time.

I wonder if the American Civil Liberties Union covers cases that might be referred to as "Separation of STATE and CHURCH"? When a state employee appears to be speaking for taxpayers on work time, using state resources on matters involving internal church affairs (no pun intended), it appears to me to constitute unlawful interference by "the state" in religious matters. If unlawful conduct is found to have taken place, it would be the duty of law enforcement personnel to deal with the matter.