Code Decision Met with Thankfulness
	Rev. Jacque Zaleski Palm Bay

When you bow your head in prayer this Thanksgiving weekend, thank God that you still have the right to do so, in your home, with your family and maybe a few friends.

Had a few citizens on the Palm Bay Code Enforcement Board not had the insight to apply the code as it was written, a lingering cloud of doubt may have remained.

You might have had to wonder if the city was watching you and trying to decide if too many people were sharing your prayers over your turkey.

Or if one of your neighbors was going to turn you in for too many cars at your house, or too much noise from the visiting grandchildren playing in your yard.

I am thankful that God gave me the physical and spiritual strength to spend 10 months in the public eye. Ten long months of looking over my shoulder every time I prayed. Ten months of wondering when the city would accept the sacredness of every citizen's relationship with God.

Florida Today was always fair to us, far more than we had imagined possible. In fact, every media person was thorough and fair.

And last, but certainly not least, there are the 16 members of the Church of Iron Oak who have worked tirelessly, risking family, social and career repercussions.

They have received their own reward, for each of them stands taller and walks more confidently knowing they stood for their rights, both for themselves and for the children who view us as their role models.

The saddest postscript is that the money spent to fight 16 law-abiding people would have paid the annual salary for two or three police officers. This certainly not progress. This is certainly not partnership.