My name is Randy Wiseman. I am the head of a conservative Christian household consisting of myself, Luanne my best friend and wife, three great boys and our dog Winston.

I live in a wonderful place in central Florida called Lake County. I attend St. Edward the Confessor Episcopal Church in Mount Dora and I am a Republican serving as a member of the Lake County School Board. Lake County is full of friendly people, beautiful lakes and happy children. Most of us who reside in Lake County live quiet normal lives. Our public schools are full of excited students from pre-school all the way up to adults. But, that was not always the
case.

In 1992 a shadow fell over Lake County. This shadow moved in without any warning. A shadow that very quickly became a darkness that engulfed our public schools. We did not understand what had happened, until our newly elected School Board started meeting. We found out too late that our school system had been taken over by the Religious Right, lead by the Christian Coalition.

Many events happened over the next two years. Please believe me, we do not have enough time today to get into those two years in detail. So, I have included a booklet called Saving Our Schools From The Religious Right in your packets. This booklet documents the events of those years very well.

Luckily, the people of Lake County woke up. And we will never allow ourselves to be put in that position again. The Christian Coalition had taken our school away from us and we were determined to get it back.

I filed as a candidate for a School Board seat in the '94 election, as did many others including Christian Coalition candidates. The lines were drawn in the sand and the campaign for control of our school system began. Never before had Lake County seen such a political fight.

From the very beginning the rumors started flying. I soon became a closet Jew running for office in a mostly Christian community. [I had supposedly taken the other "n" off my name to make it sound more Christian.] Others, it was said, were closet homosexuals wanting to get on the School Board so they could give out condoms to our middle schoolers. The Christian Coalition of Orlando Florida even sent out mailers with deceptive wording and down right lies about candidate Tom Chapman forcing him to take legal action. [He went on to win his seat on the Board.]

In the end the people of Lake County prevailed. We not only voted out the ring leader of the group, we did it with a 70% to 30% margin. This November we look forward to voting out the "other two" who still remain. Luckily, due to my election, they have not been able to do to much damage over the past two years.

The people of Lake County have proven that we are survivors. We took our school board back.

In closing, I submit this challenge to citizens in every town and county in this country. Do not pander to those who would take away your freedom. Meet them and face them down. The Christian Coalition wants things done their way, all the time, with no tolerance for other views. They say they speak for Christians, well they don't speak for me and they never will.