Scientology Lies

No one should campaign by helicopter for public office.

After all the ballyhoo and big talk, the candidate lifts off in a swirl of dust - leaving the locals with an empty, left-behind feeling.

The great one may be zooming away to new audiences, fresh excitements. But the hometown folks can only turn once more to each other and cope as best they can with all the real-life problems which still beset them.

It is the morning-after feeling the little boy experiences when he walks across an empty circus lot where, only the day before, the lions roared, the elephants trumpeted, the band played, the acrobats somersaulted, the clowns tumbled and the crowd roared.

Now, it is silent, empty. Without all that whiz-bang, reality sets in once again.

It is the same kind of hollow feeling citizens of Clearwater may be experiencing now that the City Commission hearings on activities of the Church of Scientology have come and gone.

As life in Clearwater resumes, concerned Clearwater citizens have cause to be asking some reflective questions:

Was it all necessary?

The City Commission and its paid consultant insisted the hearings would be quite necessary - to educate the populace on the true face of Scientology and to law the predicate for some local ordinances to protect its citizens against consumer fraud.

Based on advance billings, this community had every right to expect the hearings would produce some very solid, subtantive - and even new - revelations.

Instead, what Clearwater got was little more than the same song, nth and umpteenth verses.

What of real substance does Clearwater know now about Scientology that it did not know before?

That Scientology is a weird sect, which attracts some weird types?

That, like all zealots, it has its defectors and detractors, many of them pathetic characters and some as vengeful against it as it is against them?

That there are vague rumors and dark suspicions, but still not compelling proof, not unlawful acts?

So, what's new?

Is there one additional citizen here who, as a result of the hearings, has only now concluded what the majority concluded long ago: that Scientology is not the kind of enterprise this community wants in its midst?

What law enforcement officials are contemplating arrests of any Scientologists, based on information obtained at the City Commission hearings?

What local ordinances can the City Commission enact now that it could not have enacted before the hearings?

How much more disposed now are the Scientologists to pull up stakes and leave Clearwater - a move this newspaper has consistently recommended - than they were before the hearings?

Who other than the $80,000 City Commission consultant and the Scientologists' attorney is now better off?

About the best that can be said of the entire exercise is:

• The City Commission deserves some credit for grasping a rather prickly nettle it might just as well have let lie.
• Contrary to Scientologists' dire predictions, it did not romp roughshod over anyone's civil rights.
• Despite concerns of some sober citizens who care deeply for the City of Clearwater's reputation, Scientology came off as neither hero nor martyr.

The City Commission allocated $110,000 of taxpayers' money to conduct the hearings. At last official count, there were 85,450 persons living in Clearwater.

That comes to a cost of $1.20 for every man, woman and child.

Was it worth it?

Probably not.