The Nashua Telegraph, July 7, 1995.  

"Candidate boosts creationism"

By CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS (Telegraph Staff)
    NASHUA -- Students should be taught creationism in public
schools in order to better understand their rights as American
citizens, presidential hopeful Alan Keyes said during a local
radio interview.
    Keyes, who hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show,
appeared Wednesday as a guest on WMVU's Kevin Miller Show.
    A conservative Republican, Keyes said divine creation is
referred to in the Declaration of Independence, which explains
how individuals are endowed with inalienable rights.
    "What does the Declaration say?" Keyes said. "That rights
come from God. When? At the moment of creation. . . . So, of
course I think that it ought to be possible to teach our children
about the idea of creation."
    The issue focused national attention on this region earlier
last winter when the Merrimack School Board considered a proposal
from a local minister aimed at including the subject of
creationism in the school district's science curriculum.
    Bowing to local political pressure, the Rev. Paul Norwalt of
Merrimack Baptist Temple withdrew the proposal in February but
vowed to reintroduce it later this year.
    Weighing in on another regional issue, Keyes commended Gov.
Steve Merrill for his recent rejection of the federal law Goals
2000 program. Merrill passed up $2.7 million earmarked for the
state, arguing the law was too intrusive.
    "Governor Merrill was so right, and I would applaud him 100
times over," Keyes said.
    He said the program usurps the authority of the state and
communities to set educational goals for public schools.
    Declining morals in American society are to blame for
disintegration of the two-parent family, Keyes said. A rise in
the illegitimacy rate since the 1960s corresponds to an
increasing crime rate, he said.
    Roughly 70 percent of criminals come from fatherless homes,
he said.
    In addition, the federal welfare system undermines the family
structure and actually harms the poor by diminishing their
self-esteem.
    Overcoming the inner-city drug culture and lifestyle of
government handouts is a greater challenge to blacks than dealing
with their slavery roots, said Keyes, who is the only declared
black presidential candidate.
    While expressing his views on social issues, Keyes stressed
the rights of individuals.
[IN]Gays and lesbians aren't entitled to special rights as a
group based on their sexual preference and others should be able
to pass moral judgments on them, Keyes said.
    "If I don't have the right to discriminate against behavior
that I don't like, then how am I going to educate my children?"
he asked.
    He drew an analogy between homosexuality and adultery.
    "What about married people who have the sexual preference to
sleep with other people than their wives?" he said.  "That's a
sexual preference, too.
    "You go down this road, you're essentially destroying the
concept of sexual responsibility."
    A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations' Economic and
Social Council, Keyes said the United Nations overstepped its
role when it intervened in Bosnia. The organization should lift
its arms embargo and withdraw peacekeeping forces from the area,
he said.

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