The Admiral

Did the Godless March make it into the news media in your area? It didn't here in Racine or Milwaukee. I called our local editor and asked him about it. He claimed that he had not even heard about it and I believe him. But even more surprising, he claimed never to have heard of Paul Weyrich, and Weyrich is a Racine native and graduate of the local Catholic high school.

I downloaded an article on the March plus Weyrichs commentary on it and took it to the newspaper office. I wanted to give it to the editor personally but he was unavailable. For good measure I stuck in a back issue of Freethought Today.Hopefully I will get some response.

The Admiral

dangin

You wanna hear the real sad thing. I was out in front of the march, right before it started, and I was obviously filming it, so a woman stopped me and asked me what was going on.

I told her, and she laughed and said "what a bad idea"

I said "really?"

She said "Yeah, and I am an atheist but I think this is stupid"

So not only did she, an atheist in the DC area not know about it, but she opposed it when she found out about it.

The Admiral

Dangin

Yes, that is sad. Where would you put the count? I have heard 2000 to 2400. Did you see Paul Weyrichs commentary? It almost sounds as though we have him running scared.

The Admiral

Nectaris

Well there was a brief mention of it in a local paper, the Detroit News, as part of an interview with the State Director of Michigan Atheists. The article also included a quote from a mayor of local municipality, Troy, who said that he could not find any letters by the founding fathers that didn't include god.

I sent a letter to the paper to the effect that the mayor must not have been looking to hard, since there is no mention of god in the Constitution. I didn't get printed, but . . .

btw, I think the count was around 2400, of which I was 1.

Dave

crazyfingers

I saw nothing in the Boston papers.

The Admiral

Here is the text of Paul Weyrichs commentary on the Godless March.

<a href="http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021111-010421-2336r" target="_blank">LINK</a>

Outside View: Godless for America?
By Paul Weyrich
A UPI Outside View commentary
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 11/12/2002 12:50 PM

[copyrighted material beyond fair use deleted - please see link]


The dilemma facing this large unchurched, diverse group is how to organize.

As one who spent time in the political trenches during the late 1970s and 1980s working to persuade religious conservatives to become more politically active, the point of organizing was very simple: the church would serve as a focal point. Many were initially resistant to becoming involved, some even feeling that politics in and of itself was "unChristian." But the widespread belief that an assault on Christian values was being mounted in the general culture were powerful factors that influenced folks to become active.

A shared belief in God and traditional values proved itself to be a powerful message that even facilitated cross-denominational coalitions. Conservative Catholics would work with conservative born-agains in politics, representing a significant accomplishment in American politics. Remember, denominational differences had been a major fault line throughout much of American political history even as late as the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election.

Can the "unchurched" mobilize in the same way that the religious right did?

[ November 26, 2002: Message edited by: Toto ]</p>

dangin

I have Ellen Johnson on tape giving the count at 2,500. Even more interesting is that 2,500 people, who have no god, and thus in many religionists opinions, no morals, shared the same small area for over 4 hours, and there were no fights, no crimes, no indecent displays (except the blow up god and uncle sam ). In fact, as Ron Barrier pointed out, the only reason there needed to be police protection at the march was because the christians were there.

[ November 26, 2002: Message edited by: dangin ]</p>

Nectaris

One of the members of the group I was with had to sit off to the side on one of the benches due to the fact that he would not be able to stand for extended periods of time. He had said that one of the Xtian protesters left a taped up box by the side of the mall. Police were examining the box and getting ready to bring in some bomb sniffing dogs, when the person who was with our group decided to take matters into his own hands and opened up the box. It was a box of promotional CD's that the Xtians had stolen from one of tents in order to make it look like a bomb threat, and force the police to evacuate the mall.

Dave

DougI

One local hate group mentioned me and the march, but that was about it. Considering that most local media isn't really local but a part of a huge corporation all we should expect from national news is whatever the AP decides is news. That and the local fluff stories about kittens stuck up tress sorts of things.

dangin

The CDs were from "Overlord" the atheist band from philadelphia that was playing during the rally. It was pretty wacky that they took them. The CD is pretty funny, the art work is designed to look like a package of birth control pills. I'm surprised that god did not smite the fundy prankster for touching such a heathen item.