I hope this don't offend to may of you, and this may not the place for such a post. But I don't know where else to find allies in the fight. I am sending or have sent this to all the TV and radio stations, and news papers in the Orlando area. Perhaps some of you could do something semiler in your towns, or perhaps some of you have. Dear Sir or Madam: My surname is Hooker, I am very proud of that name, and all it's meant to the development of this country and the concepts of democratic freedom throughout the world. I am increasingly saddened and angered by the continued misuse and defamation of that name by the news media and others. In their attempt to seem informed and in touch with the masses they have forgotten the use of very the descriptive and accurate words prostitute and whore, and inserted the name "Hooker" to refer to such people. In questing some of the misinformed town criers, I find they do not even know how the reference of the surname "Hooker" to prostitutes supposedly came about. Now I understand it's supposed reference, and it's historic connection to the civil war general "Fighting Joe" Hooker and the spouses, girlfriends and prostitutes that followed his troops, but that does not justify it's continued misuse by those people that make a living using the English Language. They now refrain form using words with negative racial conations that were freely used in times even more recent that the civil war. Can not the same be done with the misuse of the good name "Hooker"? I respectfully request that you start a trend in referring to "soiled doves", "fallen angles", "ladies of the evening", prostitutes and whores as such and refrain form cumulative defamation of the surname Hooker. Also I wonder how many folks today understand the founding of this nation, and how it came about? Do they know how those early Americans even came to dream of democratic freedom and where the founding fathers came up with the ideas they used to establish a nation? Do they have any idea just how allied to Christianity that connection was? The following is paraphrased form "Faith and Freedom" by Benjamin Hart. The great Thomas Hooker was one of the most important of the early migrants from the mother colony to Hartford Connecticut. Hooker was the most famous of all the English preachers to make the journey to New England. Thomas Hooker is considered by many to have played the role of John the Baptist for Thomas Jefferson in the sense that he laid the foundation for American republican democracy. Hooker's primary concern was not politics, but the establishment of assemblies of worship resembling the churches found in the Book of Acts. Indeed, this was the consistent pattern behind the settlement of New England Hooker's most famous sermon, delivered before the Connecticut General Court on May 31, 1638, inspired the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which was the first written constitution in America, and very much resembles the United States Federal Constitution. Direct quotes are impossible to reconstruct exactly, as they exist in a barely decipherable journal, written by 28-year-old Henry Wolcott. But the essence of Hooker's Election Day sermon was as follows: 1. The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance. 2. The election must be conducted by the people, but votes should not be cast "in accord with their humors, but according to the will and law of God." 3. Those who "have the power to appoint officers and magistrates also have the power to set bounds and limitations on their power" so that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people," because "by a free choice the hearts of the people will be more inclined to the love of the persons chosen, and more ready to yieldobedience." On January 14, 1639, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted. The deliberations of the assembly have perished, but, as Marion Starkey points out in her book, The Congregational Way, the principles are a mirror of the mind of Thomas Hooker. The Fundamental Orders included many provisions essential to free and open government. Each town was to have proportional representation, and each was to send its elected representatives to the government in Hartford. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was the most advanced government charter the world had ever seen in terms of guaranteeing individual rights. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut represented the first known time when a working government was framed completely independently, without a charter or some other concession from a previously existing regime, but by the people themselves. It provided for regular elections, while setting strict limits on the power of those elected. Hooker criticized other New England congregations for being too quick to censure and excommunicate. His impulse was always to lower standards for church membership, believing it was far better to let in a few "hypocrites" than mistakenly to exclude true Christians. "He that will estrange his affection, because of the difference of apprehension in things difficult, he must be a stranger to himself one time or other," wrote Hooker in the preface to his Survey. "If men would be tender and careful to keep off offensive expressions, they might keep some distance in opinion in some things without hazard to truth or love." Hooker thought church discipline should be as uncoercive as possible. The existence of Hooker's colony, its ability to attract settlers, and its constitutional protection of individual liberties put pressure on Massachusetts Bay to adopt a more formal constitution of its own. The voters of Massachusetts agreed with Hooker, that the colony needed to codify a formal body of law, provide for due process, and delineate specific penalties for particular offenses. As John Cotton put it, "If you tether a beast at night, he knows the length of the tether by morning. The Massachusetts "Body of Liberties," drawn up by Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, was passed in 1641. It included 98 specific propositions, the purpose of which were to protect what they considered to be the sanctity of life, liberty, property, and reputation - foreshadowing the Bill of Rights. This historic charter declared it a violation of common law to impose taxation without representation; said that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; and guaranteed the right of the accused to be tried by a jury of one's peers. The "Body of Liberties" also forbade cruel and unusual punishment, the mistreatment of animals, and the beating of one's wife, "unless it be in his own defense upon her assault"! In 1644, the Bay adopted the secret ballot, with Indian corn representing aye votes and beans signifying the nayes. The immense contribution the Puritans of New England made to the world understands of how to write a constitution cannot be overstated. When one studies the precise nature of the laws crafted by these early assemblies, and considers the sophisticated level of political discourse, one cringes in shame to witness the sheer ignorance displayed in congressional debates today. We hear many references to lofty phrases like "inalienable rights" and "general welfare" by our demagogic politicians who have little demonstrated understanding of what these terms mean. "Free, they must vigilantly attend to matters concerning their character and souls." Thank You Dennis Hooker Orlando Fl. www.shindai.com