If we're going to create a world more friendly to reason, we need to raise our voices and speak out for the atheist viewpoint. This week, there are several ways in which you can help:
• Two Texas state legislators have been courageously fighting back against creationism by proposing legislation to increase oversight and disclosure of the creationist-dominated State Board of Education. Take a moment to sign this petition and thank them.
• The city of Ottawa has rejected the pro-atheist bus ads that have been catching London by storm. City Councillor Alex Cullen is moving to repeal this decision at the council's March 11 meeting, and he's asking for people to help out by contacting the rest of Ottawa's city councillors and pressuring them to do the right thing. Tell Ottawa to stand up for atheists' free speech!
Here is a link to the Councillors' contact information:
http://www.ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/councillors/index_en.html
To make things really easy, reader Marlowe Fillipov has pulled together all their e-mail addresses:
Georges.Bedard@ottawa.ca, Michel.Bellemare@ottawa.ca, Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca, Glenn.Brooks@ottawa.ca, rick.chiarelli@ottawa.ca, Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca, Steve.Desroches@ottawa.ca, Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca, Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca, Peggy.Feltmate@ottawa.ca, Jan.Harder@ottawa.ca, Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca, Peter.Hume@ottawa.ca, Gord.Hunter@ottawa.ca, Rob.Jellett@ottawa.ca, Kitchissippi@ottawa.ca, Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca, Maria.Mcrae@ottawa.ca, Bob.Monette@ottawa.ca, Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca, Doug.Thompson@ottawa.ca, Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca, Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca
Please send them an e-mail today.
• Finally, atheists should stand together against religiously motivated, ineffective and dangerous "abstinence-only" sex ed classes in public schools, most of which are just thinly disguised vehicles for Christian proselytizing. The No More Money campaign has been founded to oppose these programs (HT: Marty Klein). Please take action at their site and send a message to President Obama telling him that Americans deserve secular, reality-based sex ed in their public schools.
About a year ago, our governor spoke out against abstinence-only sex education. I wrote him a letter to thank him for his evidence-based approach to reality. Disappointingly, the functionary that answered my letter very much backpedaled and said that the guv had really meant something like, "Abstinence is great, but those pesky facts get in the way, and in order to keep the damned liberals happy, I said what I said."
I think the functionary wasn't really expressing the guv's true opinion, based on other observations I've made. It just crisps my noodles to think that our state government is so afraid of the fundies that they can't even accept praise for doing what's right.
Comment #1 by: GDad | March 1, 2009, 7:19 pm