Editorial
Clearwater Sun, Nov. 7, 1979

"Maybe it is time to stop harping on past grudges but instead work toward the goal of a safer and more charitable world... This is our plan, our purpose, our goal and has always been." - Nancy Reitze, Scientologist spokesman, Clearwater.

The above is a recent quote by Ms. Reitze, following the unmasking of Scientology's plans to dominate everyone from Taco Bill (former Clearwater mayor Gabe Cazares) to international financiers, mental health leaders, Clearwater Sun Editor Ron Stuart and Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Jim Russell.

Let's analyze the statement by Ms. Reitze, who seems to have become the most audible, if not the most powerful, Scientologist in these parts.

"Maybe it is time to stop harping on past grudges..."
We can understand Ms. Reitze's with to let bygones by bygones. If only Clearwater can be made to forget the lies, insults, coverups and general hostility with which the cult of Scientology made its entrance in Clearwater in 1975, the cult's current leadership will have a much easier time of it today and in the future.

...but instead work toward the goal of a safer and more charitable world...
This sounds pretty, but it begs the question, safer and more charitable for whom? The Scientologists, or the people of Clearwater?

"This is our plan, our purpose, our goal and has always been."
That statement is a palpable lie, and the Scientologists' track record proves it so.

The goal of the cult of Scientology is money and power.

Most of the money is taken from young, well-to-do, alienated men and women who are looking for meaning in life, for authority figures and for a sense of belonging.

The cult relieves new members of their money and some of their anxieties. The recruits are given attention, soothing words, encouragement and slick mumbo-jumbo about engrams and mind-clearing.

The instruction and indoctrination last as long as the student's money lasts, and not an hour longer.

(We wish the Scientology students would seriously consider an alternative: any of the dozens of churches and temples that Clearwater boasts. Their teachings go back a lot farther than L. Ron Hubbard's dianetic dreamings, and there's absolutely no charge.)

If the Scientologists came straight out and admitted that their chief goal is money, the world could accept them.

Instead, they pretend to be a church. They take refuge behind our most cherished laws, the ones protecting freedom of religion.

Now the cult's own files are on display and the world can determine for itself just what sort of people Scientology leaders are.

Ms. Reitze's primary tactic today is to wash her hands of the conspiracies and other wrongdoing of her fellow Scientologists.

We wonder why Ms. Reitze didn't deplore the illegalities of the other members before this. Anyone as high-ranking as Ms. Reitze surely must have been aware of the cult's actions and plans.

Now that the guilty pleas have been entered and the despicable and frightening evidence is open to the public, Ms. Reitze turns her back on all of it and says, "Let's move on to a safer, more charitable world."

This newspaper doesn't intend to forget, forgive or turn its back on the past history (or the future plotting) of the Scientologists in Clearwater.

We hope our readers' memories will be just as long and intractable as our own.