vixstile

Sorry, the godlessamericans web site says "no alcohol please"

marylandnaturegirl

Jaimie I hope to see you there. I have a Yahoo Group that is specifically for "religion-free" types that live in the WASHINGTON DC area. We are trying to cooridinate some activities for the Godless March. Also we have many local activities that we know of and have that are for local non believers year round so please feel free to join us.

Same goes for any DC area people or those that would are coming to the DC area and would like to have a local contact in the area. Perhaps the DC area people can buddy up with the an out of towner to be their host for the weekend.

<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/religionfreedc/" target="_blank">Religion Free (Washington) DC Zone</a>

marylandnaturegirl

I am guessing but I think they chose "Godless Americans March" to spoof the "God Bless America" crap that is everywhere these days.

Just lose the B and you have Godless America.

On another website we have already started writing a new song to the tune of God Bless America that is Godless America. So far it is pretty cool.

Anyhow, the Godless Americans and the American Atheists HAVE indeed reached out to non religious groups of all sorts nationwide and in fact the Godless March has already been endorsed by well over 40 organizations including the Council for Secular Humanists and the Campus Freethought Alliance.

Here is a list of the organizations supporting it:

American Atheists
Anti-Discrimination Support Network
Apathetic Agnostic Church of Florida
Arab Atheists & Free Ideas Guild (AFIG)
Atheism Awareness
Atheist/Anarchists of New England
Atheist Empire
Atheist Families--Parent Soup/Ivillage
Atheist Radio Network
Atheist-talk (International online discussion)
Birmingham Atheists
Boston Atheists
Campus Freethought Alliance
Council for Secular Humanism
Dallas Agnostics
Freethinkers-Atheists-Of-Virginia
Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia
God Is A Myth
The Good Life Humanist Society
Great Lakes Humanist Society
Humanist Community of Central Ohio
Humanists of Washington
Houston Church of Freethought
Kansas Atheists
Maggot Punks
Metroplex Atheists
Michigan Atheists
Mind Over Madness
Minnesota Atheists
The Mobile Atheists
MSN's God is a Lie! Chat/Community
Nebraska Atheists
PA Nonbelievers of York, PA
Religion Free D.C.
Religious Rights Watch Yahoo Group
Salt Lake Valley Atheists
Secular Humanists of the LowCountry
Single Atheists/virtual community
Skeptics-Freethought of North Alabama
Society of Separationists
Space Coast Objectivism Promoters and Explorers
United Secularists of America
The Wiregrass Atheists
Wonderful Atheists of Central Florida
Yahoo Chatroom Group Atheists


to see their web addresses and more details on the March and what it is hoping to accomplish go to

<a href="http://www.godlessamericans.org" target="_blank">http://www.godlessamericans.org</a>

I am glad the event is inclusive and not exclusive.

I think that is also why they chose a name that could be referring to any of us and also has a very easily understood adjective. Frankly, besides atheist, most of the other adjectives for non-believers are kind of esoteric and the general public doesn't know that infidels, humanists, free thinkers, rationalists, skeptics, etc are god-free.

Godless March will get the point across very clearly and also will help to work well in PRINT to be highly visible and make it easier for the other god-free types across the nation to hear about it and join in, espeically the unaffiliated folks that don't have any group to alert them to this event.

If it was called American Atheist March it would seem exclusive not inclusive. Thus I am sure a name was searched for that was not referring to any particular real world group so that no one would feel excluded.

Can't wait to meet all of you!

Secular Jeff

The Internet Infidels has decided to help get the word out about the Godless Americans March on Washington. The March will be held on November 2nd, 2002. You might have already noticed the Godless Americans graphic on the Secular Web Main Page and the smaller graphic in our rotating ad banner at the top of every page.

This is the brainchild of American Atheists. They are reaching out to all and everyone in America who has no religious beliefs -- Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, Rationalists. Whatever the label, they're asking you to come to Washington, DC and be part of this important event.

So far, on the national scale, the Internet Infidels, the Campus Freethought Alliance, and the Council for Secular Humanism have endorsed the march along with over 50 local groups.

The Godless Americans request that individuals "sign" their endorsment page. They ask for an email address, your name, city is optional, state, and country. Your name and country, nothing else, will be added on their website to their list of individual endorsers.

What I am asking you to do is when you "sign" their endorsment page, immediately after your last name hit the space bar once and type these two letters, lower-case: ii

This will give us and American Atheists some idea of just how many "infidels" are out here.

<a href="http://www.infidels.org/marchonwashington.shtml" target="_blank">Godless Americans March on Washington</a>

Thanks,

Jeff Lucas
President, Internet Infidels

uhcord

Sadly I already "signed" it and I don't see any edit option, so I can't add the ii at the end of my name. Though my name is one of the firsts, Richard Bond.

2tadpoles

I'm a bit annoyed at my husband right now. I was talking about attending this event, and he is giving me flak. He says he doesn't want me to go because he feels that DC is not a safe place to be as of late. He seems to think that another hijacked plane will crash on the Mall while I'm there, or that some crazed Muslim will do a suicide bomb in the middle of the function.

Of course, you never can tell in a big city. When we lived in DC some weirdo shot six people at the National Zoo.

What do y'all think? Do you think that a "godless" type event could inspire some violence? I'm not entirely sure that it wouldn't, but I still would like to go. Anyone have some words of wisdom to make hubby feel better about this?

The Other Michael

For a T-shirt you could then have God Bless America with the slashed circle imprinted over the B.

Cheers,
Michael

marylandnaturegirl

Frogsmoocher, I can understand your hubbies fears but I think they are unwarranted.
Let me tell you that there were similar fears on the part of some back around September 22nd, 2001 when we had scheduled a rally to take place outside of the Pakistan Embassy to protest their laws on blasphemy. (If you are convicted of blasphemy it is the death sentence). We were in particular protesting the jailing of a particular person Dr. Shaikh.

I had many loved ones and friends trying to tell me not to go but I am sooooooo glad I did and I even took photojournalistic photos of the event.


Here is the latest link to a New York times article on the subject


<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/opinion/21KRIS.html?todaysheadlines" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/opinion/21KRIS.html?todaysheadlines</a>

But my point was that the event was planned well before 9/11 and after 9/11 SOME were scared to continue on with the event. Some organizations even pulled out of the event as they feared not only for themselves but that it would some how negatively effect the man in prison.

Luckily they were DEAD WRONG. Many of us brave and wise souls including the American Atheists still forged ahead with the plan and didn't let the terrorism on 9/11 deter us from expressing our freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

The turn out wasn't great considering everthing, in fact at times it seemed the Secret Service that were were assigned there to protect us outnumbered the participators. However,it was a very peaceful and sunny day and we only received positive things. Not a single heckler and certainly no crazy terrorists.

I think the terrorists have much bigger fish to fry then a gathering of non-believers. We could only HOPE that the event would be so large and well publicized that people will even notice or pay attention. There are much larger events to target and they'd be more likely to target a Christian or Jewish large gathering than a bunch of non-religious people.

I am sure there will be ample security as there usually are assigned at these events.

I was down on the mall for the turn from 1999 to 2000 and everyone feared that would be a big target but nothing happened. (New Year's Eve Celebration)

I also had people warning me not to go to Zimbabwe and Africa in general in late 2000 but I went and had the time of my life that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. It was perfectly safe in the areas that I went to and was uneventful on the human side. I did get charged by an elephant, snarled at by a lion, and sniffed out in the dark by a panting leopard....but we made it back in one piece and I had a blast!

There are rally's and gatherings of groups EVERY SINGLE DAY in Washington DC and I think it unlikely that we would be a target. They will go after a group of people that is either highly crowded or highly loved. I doubt the Godless Americans would be classified as a highly loved group.....even though I wish it were different.

I for one will not let terrorism deter me from carrying on my freedom of speech and freedom to protest and rally and assemble. I will not let the terrorists take that away, because if I do.....then they have truly won.

My advice is to go for it and that I don't think our event will even show a tiny blip on the Al Qaeda's target screens.

My group Religion-Free D.C. which is a virtual community is volunteering to answer any questions that people may have regarding the local area etc.

Please forward any questions you may have to
marylandnaturegirl@yahoo.com and I will forward them to the group. Please have a contact email.

For locals who want to join go to:

<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/religionfreedc/" target="_blank">Religion-Free Zone in Washington DC webpage</a>

[ June 23, 2002: Message edited by: marylandnaturegirl ]</p>

Toto

I think you have to anticipate that some wacko will try something, but I don't see this march as attracting a major counter-effort. For one thing, not a lot of people will know about it. Of course, if the turnout is larger than expected and American Atheists doesn't know what to do with the crowd, there might be problems. Is there anyone involved in this who has experience with demonstrations?

It is possible that the media will ignore the event. A few people get to meet other non-believers, but no one else knows about it.

The worst thing (outside of violence) is that the media will notice it only to treat it as a freak show. They will ignore calm, well-dressed, well-spoken reasonable people and point their cameras at the most obnoxious, crazy hateful people they can find who will say impolitic things (like "feed all Christians to the lions").

The other unfortunate outcome might be if right wing Christians mounted a march with more people than we could muster, maybe at the same time.

emphryio

Marylandnaturegirl said: I exactly disagree with you. The Americans who have NO religion are considered far and away the most evil part of America by Muslims. (At least in my opinion.) Beyond supporting Israel, America is the great "satan" because of premarital sex and short skirts, abortions, (etc). These things only exist because of non-believers.

Furthermore, not even getting around to worrying about Muslim terrorists, I would worry about Christian fanatic nut cases.

Because what has happened throughout history if an atheist/agnostic person publicly proclaims their beliefs?

Currently at this very moment there are THOUSANDS of christians in America who think judgement day is coming soon. (I even know two engineers who believe this). One or two such confused individuals could decide this march is the perfect opportunity to rid the world of much sin. And well you know this could be the biggest gathering of atheists ever. It would be the ultimate perfect opportunity for someone.

Although I could see some good possibly resulting from this march. The possible bad definitely outweighs the good in my opinion.

The good: Some positive publicity for atheism. (Maybe).

The bad: A ton of the best people in America getting murdered.

Although they could be martyrs I guess.