I obtained the above-cited factual information about religious-congregation affiliation this evening for the first time ever when I happened to run across a 2017 online account by a local Jewish media organization, "The Jewish Outlook".
That online account informed me for the first time ever that Dr. Alison Alter, my own duly-elected District 10 City Council member --- she being the only Council Member who primarily represents me and all other residents of the District 10 section of Austin at City Council meetings --- is herself a longtime member of Congregation Beth Israel.
According to several City of Austin officials whom I have spoken with, they are not aware of ANY OTHER recent case, under the current "Direct Representation by Geographical District of Austin" system, in which a resident of Austin has been prohibited from directly contacting his or her officially designated direct representative for that particular district who is also a voting member of the Austin City Council.
Congregation Beth Israel's synagogue is situated a matter of blocks from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Alter and her family reportedly joined Congregation Beth Israel shortly after they moved to Austin in 2011.
Dr. Alison Alter is reportedly a Harvard University-trained and Stanford University-trained public policy expert. She reportedly earned a PhD in political economy and government from Harvard. Her bachelor's degree, from Stanford, was in public policy. She is a former lecturer in international policy studies, political science, and public policy at Stanford University, according to the cited "Jewish Outlook" online profile of Alison Alter.
The link to the above-cited online profile about Austin City Council Member Alter is:
http://www.thejewishoutlook.com/home/2017/2/2/cbi-members-make-the-city-a-better-place-through-civic-engagement-1
That factual news to me today about Council Member Alter and her family being longtime members of Congregation Beth Israel in west Austin calls to mind a memorable comment to me about 30 years ago by an official of that Reform Judaism-affiliated local religious group.
In 1988 or 1987, during a polite phone call I made to Congregation Beth Israel's synagogue office in Austin from my parents' home in Westlake Hills, Rabbi-Emeritus Louis Firestein---who was situated inside that synagogue at the time---chose to take the call from me and posed the following unexpected question to me that day: "If you (John Kevin McMillan) could live your entire life all over again, would you want it to be like it is today?"
In a belated and hopefully-respectful reply to the late Rabbi-Emeritus Firestein, I can specifically and politely state that in the world of today I myself do not appreciate being prohibited by the City Government of Austin ever since March 9, 2017, from ever at any time directly contacting my duly-elected Council Member on the Austin City Council, District 10 rep Alison Alter, or any of the City Hall staff members whom Dr. Alter supervises, about any of my own public-policy-related concerns or suggestions for the City Government of Austin.
I might add, though, that I of course have fully honored Council Member Alter's reported request through another City of Austin official that I myself permanently refrain from ever myself directly contacting either Council Member Alter or any of her staff members, or her husband, UT-Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor and UT-Austin History Department Professor Jeremi Suri, about any subject or topic or issue of any type.
I myself am dependably civil and law-abiding and polite and tactfully honest, and I do not have any criminal-conviction record. I am also gainfully employed and permanently marijuana-free (ever since the late fall of 1984) and never-previously-addicted, lifelong-illicit-drug-free in regard to any and all illicit drugs other than marijuana, permanently drinking-alcohol-free (ever since the late summer of 1990) and never-previously-addicted, lifelong-tobacco-free, lifelong-tattoo-less, facially-cleanshaven (no beard, no mustache, no goatee), permanently jewelry-less and without any earrings or nostril rings or tongue-rings anywhere on my own body, and dependably clean-talking (no profanity or obscenities by me in my everyday conversations with others).
I am also the founder of a new and non-Christian and non-Judaistic "Honor Society" religion, the non-proselytizing "Progressive Prohibitionist Religion", with very stringent membership-eligibility requirements. In fact, I am the only approved current member of that fully-independent new religion that opposes thought-control projects, opposes medically-injurious noise pollution, opposes deprogramming projects, opposes vigilanteism, opposes anonymous communications violating the privacy of the individual being subjected to those anonymous communications against his wishes, opposes fraudulent or knowingly dishonest communications, opposes fraudulent or injurious medical services, opposes deliberately inflicted medical injury or medical harm to any person during a period when he is either asleep and unconscious or otherwise unconscious inside his own private residence, OPPOSES sexual-assault and other personal-injury-crimes, opposes the felony-crime of stalking, and opposes illegal forms of electronic surveillance of American citizens.
That factual news to me today about Council Member Alter and her family being longtime members of Congregation Beth Israel in west Austin calls to mind a memorable comment to me about 30 years ago by an official of that Reform Judaism-affiliated local religious group.
In 1988 or 1987, during a polite phone call I made to Congregation Beth Israel's synagogue office in Austin from my parents' home in Westlake Hills, Rabbi-Emeritus Louis Firestein---who was situated inside that synagogue at the time---chose to take the call from me and posed the following unexpected question to me that day: "If you (John Kevin McMillan) could live your entire life all over again, would you want it to be like it is today?"
In a belated and hopefully-respectful reply to the late Rabbi-Emeritus Firestein, I can specifically and politely state that in the world of today I myself do not appreciate being prohibited by the City Government of Austin ever since March 9, 2017, from ever at any time directly contacting my duly-elected Council Member on the Austin City Council, District 10 rep Alison Alter, or any of the City Hall staff members whom Dr. Alter supervises, about any of my own public-policy-related concerns or suggestions for the City Government of Austin.
I might add, though, that I of course have fully honored Council Member Alter's reported request through another City of Austin official that I myself permanently refrain from ever myself directly contacting either Council Member Alter or any of her staff members, or her husband, UT-Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor and UT-Austin History Department Professor Jeremi Suri, about any subject or topic or issue of any type.
I myself am dependably civil and law-abiding and polite and tactfully honest, and I do not have any criminal-conviction record. I am also gainfully employed and permanently marijuana-free (ever since the late fall of 1984) and never-previously-addicted, lifelong-illicit-drug-free in regard to any and all illicit drugs other than marijuana, permanently drinking-alcohol-free (ever since the late summer of 1990) and never-previously-addicted, lifelong-tobacco-free, lifelong-tattoo-less, facially-cleanshaven (no beard, no mustache, no goatee), permanently jewelry-less and without any earrings or nostril rings or tongue-rings anywhere on my own body, and dependably clean-talking (no profanity or obscenities by me in my everyday conversations with others).
I am also the founder of a new and non-Christian and non-Judaistic "Honor Society" religion, the non-proselytizing "Progressive Prohibitionist Religion", with very stringent membership-eligibility requirements. In fact, I am the only approved current member of that fully-independent new religion that opposes thought-control projects, opposes medically-injurious noise pollution, opposes deprogramming projects, opposes vigilanteism, opposes anonymous communications violating the privacy of the individual being subjected to those anonymous communications against his wishes, opposes fraudulent or knowingly dishonest communications, opposes fraudulent or injurious medical services, opposes deliberately inflicted medical injury or medical harm to any person during a period when he is either asleep and unconscious or otherwise unconscious inside his own private residence, OPPOSES sexual-assault and other personal-injury-crimes, opposes the felony-crime of stalking, and opposes illegal forms of electronic surveillance of American citizens.
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